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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 






ZEBEDEE V. 































. 


























She come right along askin’ for him 




ZEBEDEE V 


BY 

EDITH BARNARD DELANO 

W 


ILLUSTRATED 





BOSTON 

SMALL, MAYNARD AND COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS 



7 




Copyright, 1912 

By Small, Maynard and Company 

(incorporated) 

Entered at Stationers' Hall 



THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, CAMBRIDGE, U. S. A. 


©CI.A328296 K 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


“ She come right along askin’ for him ” Frontispiece 

Page 


“ First thing we all knew she begun to 

topple ” 79 

“ You’d think Alexander was born an’ 

brought up on tournaments ”... 230 


“ Zebedee V. stood in the middle o’ the 
floor with his arms folded ”... 


269 



ZEBEDEE V. 






ZEBEDEE V 


i 

Pocahontas, the name of a locality 
rather than a village, recalls to those who 
knew it a country store beside a railroad 
platform; a long line of hitching-posts 
near an untidy blacksmith shop, where 
towards train-time various buggies, Day- 
ton wagons, and farm teams were tied; 
and an irregular open space stretching 
from the hitching-rail to the store. A 
dusty road of many hollows and hidden 
lumps led down the hill to the store and 
crossed the narrow-gauge railway. A 
raised platform served as railroad sta- 
tion, and was apt to be littered with milk- 

i 


ZEBEDEE V 


cans, and boxes of various age and size, 
and all the nondescript driftwood which 
washes upon the shores of a farming 
community. In summer there was always, 
after sunset, a row of men seated along 
its edge, with heels dangling over the dusty 
weeds that sprang up under its protection. 
In winter the loungers gathered within 
the store, which served equally well as 
post-office, ticket-office, and news ex- 
change. Its front wore the comprehen- 
sive sign: 

“SHOES, GROCERIES, SEED &• NOTIONS” 

The open space, with the store and the 
railroad and the hitching-rail and black- 
smith shop, was the center of Pocahontas ; 
what there was of a village stretched 
along the pike for half a mile, and strag- 
gled up the cross-road over the river and 
hill to the north. The shallow, rippling, 
2 


ZEBEDEE V 

rock-broken stream would not have been 
called a river at all in a more liberally 
watered country — nor in one more lit- 
eral. Not far from the point at which 
the river was spanned by a covered bridge 
— something of a rarity in Maryland — 
stood a long-disused, gaunt-looking, gray- 
stone building of many sightless windows, 
a silent reminder of the small cotton-duck 
industry that once gave life to the place. 
Along the steeply ascending road, beyond 
the mill, were several rows of closely 
built stone cottages. The hill was at one 
time crowned with a small, unpretentious 
wooden church whose simple exterior and 
low, pointed steeple were unadorned save 
by a coat of light brown paint. Between 
the church and the toll-gate perhaps 
twenty houses faced the road, — wooden 
houses, none of them very lately painted, 
none of them especially tidy, but all with 
3 


ZEBEDEE V 

a homely, comfortable, hospitable look 
about them, and the indescribable signs 
of genial family life — perhaps a child’s 
wagon in a front walk, or a chicken or 
two investigating the kitchen door, a 
hound or setter dozing in a sunny spot, 
a row of little stockings on a line in the 
backyard, or a group of rockers under 
a cherry tree or on the veranda. There 
was only one remarkable thing about 
them; in front of every house ran a line 
of fence, and two-thirds of the fences 
were of iron. Of wooden fences there 
were many varieties, of many degrees of 
dilapidation; there were two low and un- 
even stone walls which were evidently 
allowed to take care of themselves; but 
of the iron fences there was a very riot- 
ousness of color, pattern, and size. There 
were simple lines of iron with unadorned 
uprights, there were fences of large- 
4 


ZEBEDEE V 


meshed, close-meshed, and fancy-meshed 
nettings ; some had designs twisted in the 
uprights, others had rods and spikes of 
different heights; there was one, in front 
of a large house which stood Pharisaical 
in rather new white paint, sufficiently tall 
and ornate to grace the entrance to a 
baronial estate. It was an unusual dis- 
play of the iron-founder’s art, — an 
almost marvelous display, unless one re- 
membered the persuasiveness of Mr. Zeb- 
edee V. Slocum. 

Of the people of Pocahontas, about 
one-third were Slocums, one-third were 
Poseys, and the other third did not really 
count. There were three Elmer Poseys 
and four Zebedee Slocums ; to avoid con- 
fusion the neighborhood gave each one a 
distinctive title, as : “ OF Zeb,” “ Crick 
Zeb,” — to the man who lived over by 
Pone Creek, “ Little Zeb,” and “ Zebedee 
5 


ZEBEDEE V 


V.” All the Pocahontas men had points 
of similarity beyond their names. All 
were farmers, and most were married 
men with promising families. They all 
attended the Methodist church on the hill, 
and all were staunch Democrats, like their 
fathers before them. If tomatoes brought 
good prices one year, the next year they 
all raised tomatoes. If a man in Anne 
Arundel made a fortune in cabbages when 
cabbages were scarce, the fields around 
Pocahontas were blue with them the next 
summer. They had Rural Free Delivery, 
and all took the Baltimore “ Sun Paper ” 
and Never Fail Pain Killer. Their days 
passed in the pleasant round of the sea- 
sons, yet not uneventfully; life never be- 
came monotonous; they had Zebedee V. 
among them ! 

For while Mr. Zebedee V. Slocum, like 
the lilies of the field, neither toiled nor 
6 


ZEBEDEE V 


spun, he was richly endowed with a vivid 
and wandering imagination, and with 
powers of persuasion worthy of a wider 
field. Pocahontas was indebted to him 
not only for its iron fences; every house 
in the village had its lightning rod, every 
house had also an electric bell. Most 
of those boasting iron fences had Venetian 
blinds, and nearly all had corrugated-iron 
roofs on their hen houses. Every good 
housewife in the place was supplied with 
a patent self-basting roasting pan, and 
many had wonderful needle-books of a 
thousand assorted needles with patent 
eyes. The owners of these wonders would 
have been most unwilling to dispense with 
any of them, yet none would have bought 
them in the first place had it not been for 
the persuasiveness of Mr. Slocum. 

Zebedee V. was a born leader of men, 
and not by inclination anything else. His 
7 


ZEBEDEE V 


oratory poured forth convincingly on any 
subject; the romantic turn of his mind 
opened for his staid and stolid neighbors 
entrancing vistas of the imagination 
which would have remained closed but 
for him. His presence among them 
brought into their lives the beguiling ele- 
ment of uncertainty, the will-of-the-wisp 
of chance, the charm of the unexpected. 
All the men admired him; some, like his 
friend Mr. Willy Posey, the Rural Deliv- 
ery letter-carrier, would have followed 
him to the death; it was only the women 
who distrusted him. His was the most 
striking figure among them, and never a 
day passed that he was not a subject of 
conversation. His children, his private 
affairs, his political views, and his business 
enterprises were alike of absorbing inter- 
est; but it was when he had buried his 
second wife, and was once more on the 
8 


ZEBEDEE V 


matrimonial market of Pocahontas, that 
Mr. Slocum took the place that was 
preeminently his, the first place in 
the thoughts and conversation of his 
neighbors. 


9 


II 

The hot sun of an August afternoon was 
pouring down upon the fields and hills 
around Pocahontas. The roads, which 
were inches deep with red clay in the 
spring, and whose frozen ruts were many 
and dangerous in the winter, were now 
heavy with yellow dust. The roadsides 
and bordering vegetation were thickly 
covered with it, and a rattling Dayton 
wagon, moving slowly along the pike, 
raised a yellow cloud. 

The Dayton belonged to Mrs. Aaron 
Posey, who was returning from the fu- 
neral of Mr. Zebedee V. Slocum's second 
wife; with her were her two sisters — 
Mrs. “ Sissy ” Slocum and Miss Julia 
io 


ZEBEDEE V 


Higgins — and Mrs. Slocum’s guest, Mrs. 
Stansbury. Mrs. Posey had been intend- 
ing to take Mrs. Stansbury “ to ride,” and 
the funeral afforded a good opportunity 
to combine duty with pleasure. The con- 
versation of the four was of the departed 
Mrs. Slocum. 

“ Well,” said Mrs. Posey, “ it ’s to be 
hoped ’t Zebedee V. Slocum ’ll pay more 
respect to pore Milly’s mem’ry ’n he did 
to Lucy White’s.” 

“ Oh, well now, Annie Lee,” said her 
widowed sister, “ Zebedee V. had them 
eight child’en to look after, an’ a body 
cain’t blame a man with eight child’en for 
takin’ a helpmate ’s soon ’s he can get 
one.” 

“ I don’t care,” said Mrs. Aaron, 
“ there ’s sech a thing ’s decency, eight 
child’en or not.” 

“ For the land’s sakes ! ” exclaimed Mrs. 


ii 


ZEBEDEE V 


Stansbury. “ Did they all eight belong to 
the first wife? ” 

“ Every last one of ’em,” replied Mrs. 
Aaron, her tone almost suggesting a per- 
sonal injury. “ Zebedee V. Slocum mar- 
ried Lucy White for her wealth and ex- 
pectations, and I reckon she brought him 
less of one and more of the other ’n ever 
he counted on. It did n’t take him long 
to make an end of the money.” 

“ I wonder she let him have control of 
it,” said Mrs. Stansbury, in the firm tone 
of a “ born manager.” “ What ’d he do 
with all them child’en?” 

“ Do ? He did n’t do one single thing 
but put ’em all eight out visitin’. That ’s 
what he did. He stood ’em two days after 
Lucy White ’s laid away, an’ nen he put 
’em all into the wagon with their clo’es, 
what they was of ’em, and took ’em around 
to visit. I thank my stars I was away 
12 


ZEBEDEE V 


from home that day. Ef it had n’t been 
for old Mis’ Lewis Cary’s dyin’ so sud- 
den at the last I would n’t ’a’ been, either ! ” 

“ Was they cornin’ to visit you? ” asked 
Mrs. Stansbury. 

“ Well, I reckon Zebedee V. Slocum 
knew ’s well ’s anybody else ’t I have five 
feather beds and set a good table. Zebe- 
dee V. Slocum always knows where to 
look for the butter for his bread. I on’y 
say ’t I thank my stars I was n’t home 
when that man drove around puttin’ his 
child’en to visit.” 

“ Where ’d he put them ? ” asked Mrs. 
Stansbury. 

“ Jest wherever he could,” said Mrs. 
Posey, emphatically. 

“ Yes, that he did,” said Mrs. Slocum. 
“ He come to my house whilst I was a 
makin’ currant jelly. Everybody knows 
currant ’s the hardest kind to jell, and 
i3 


ZEBEDEE V 


everybody but a man ’d ’a’ kept out of the 
way ; and I do think ’t any man on earth 
but Zebedee V. Slocum ’d ’a’ gone away 
again when he see my trouble and worry. 
But not him. I never ’s so surprised in 
all my life ’s when I see him drivin’ into 
the side yard with his eight. He picked 
Thomasina and Gladys Virginia out of 
the wagon, and a little bundle of clo’es, and 
set ’em down in my kitchen. I ’s just that 
dumfoundered I could n’t say one word, 
and the jelly jest a-comin’ ! But Zebedee 
V. said enough to fit the occasion. He ’s 
lookin’ as solemn as a judge, and every 
inch the widower. ‘ Cousin Sissy,’ s’ys 
he, ‘ you ’re the widder o’ my own first 
cousin,’ s’ys he, ‘ and I feel ’t you got as 
good a right as any to be the comforter 
of my poor motherless half-orphans. I 
thought you ’d like to have these here little 
ones to make you a visit.’ And with that 

14 


ZEBEDEE V 


he up and walks out, and leaves ’em settin’ 
there with never a blink. It did seem like 
he might ’a’ took ’em home after a month 
or so, but he did n’t. Fin’lly the neighbors 
met and decided to jest return ’em, which 
they did. Mis’ Julius Todd drove around 
and collected ’em, and left ’em at Zebedee 
V.’s house ’ithout a word. He stood ’em 
jest one week, an’ nen he eloped with Milly 
Skinner.” 

“ She from Pocahontas ? ” asked Mrs. 
Stansbury. 

“ Um hum,” said Mrs. Aaron Posey. 
“ She was in high repute as a worker, and 
Zebedee V. Slocum thought she ’d oughter 
be able to raise up his eight. Milly 
was n’t goin’ to bother herself with other 
folks’s children, howsoever, and it seemed 
like she ’s been workin’ so hard all her 
life ’t she wanted to rest. Anyways, that ’s 
all she did, aiter she’s married; and it 
15 


ZEBEDEE V 


was n't more 'n two year before she 's so 
fleshy she could n't scarcely move outen 
her chair. And here Tuesday she dropped 
dead!" 

“ For the land's sakes ! " said Mrs. 
Stansbury. “ What 'll the child'en do for 
mournin' ? " 

“ Well," said Mrs. Posey, “it 's a blessed 
good thing the style 's come in of wearin’ 
black on the arm. Zebedora and Flor- 
ence 's got tan coats as good as new. 
Most anybody can give 'em enough black 
goods for strips, an' Zebedora 's old 
enough to look after 'em all. She 's done 
that long enough a'ready, goodness knows, 
— pore child ! " 

The Dayton had rattled in at Mrs. 
Posey's gate, and that lady helped her 
guests to alight. 


1 6 


Ill 


The Aaron Posey farm was some four 
miles out the pike from the church on the 
hill. Aaron Posey was a kindly, self- 
effacing soul with a masterful wife, whose 
grievance it was that she lived just far 
enough from Pocahontas to be one of the 
last to hear any news. There were no chil- 
dren at the Aaron Poseys’, but Mrs. 
Aaron mothered her husband, and Mr. 
Posey raised little white pigs which he 
sold for high prices, and very large white 
pigs which took all the prizes at the county 
fairs of Belair and Timonium and Pla- 
gerstown. Mrs. Posey was not to be out- 
done by Aaron ; she was noted for making 
the best beaten biscuit and peach marma- 
lade and cherry bounce in Pocahontas ; and 
i7 


ZEBEDEE V 


it is something to be supreme in one’s own 
sphere, however circumscribed it may be. 

Aaron’s cousin Willy — Mr. Willy, he 
was generally called, perhaps out of def- 
erence to some innate dignity — was the 
Rural Delivery letter-carrier, and it de- 
scribes his character to say that his two 
dearest friends were Zebedee V. Slocum 
and his cousin Aaron’s wife, the embodi- 
ments of romance and of common sense. 
The greatest joys of his life were to listen 
to Zebedee V. and talk to Mrs. Aaron. 
He was a plump, rosy-cheeked little man, 
with a round face that was smooth- 
shaven on Wednesdays and Sundays. 
His movements were quick and rather 
fussy. His point of view wavered be- 
tween an inclination towards prudishness 
and a zest for the unusual. He was pain- 
fully shy with most women, and would 
have given a year of his life to be known 
18 


ZEBEDEE V 


as a beau for one short day. He kept his 
own house far more neatly than did many 
of his feminine neighbors, and had never 
found his bachelor existence lonely or 
irksome. 

The Aaron Posey farm was the last 
stopping-place on his route, and he would 
rattle up to the side porch in his old 
Dayton wagon, hop over the wheel, and 
fussily tie his sedate white mare, Alex- 
ander, as securely as if she had been a 
two-year-old thoroughbred, and then trip 
up to the veranda or into the sitting- 
room, bristling with all the latest news of 
Pocahontas. 

A month or two after the funeral of 
the second Mrs. Zebedee V., he said to 
Mrs. Aaron one afternoon, 

“ I tell you what it is, Cousin Annie 
Lee, I ain't got much respec’ for anybody 
’t pays taxes towards Rural Delivery and 

19 


ZEBEDEE V 


nen goes to the store for his mail. That ’s 
what I call sheer wastefulness.” 

Mrs. Posey was sprinkling down the 
clothes, and looked up at him over the 
black rims of her spectacles. “ What ’s 
in that to make you so riled, Cousin 
Willy? ” she asked. 

“ Well, I jest tell you what ’t is, Cousin 
Annie Lee; I ain’t got a minute to spare 
to read any postmarks, nor postals neither, 
and I never was one of the kind to peer 
into other folks’s business. People cer- 
t’n’y is suspicious in this world. Here 
only the other day I took a letter to Zebe- 
dee V. Slocum from Plumtree, Indiana, 
and said somethin’ pleasant like about it 
havin’ come far enough to get tired, and 
Zebedee V. looked like he thought I ’s 
wantin’ to know what ’s inside of it ; and 
now he goes to the store every day him- 
self. Yes ’m.” 


20 


ZEBEDEE V 


Mrs. Aaron Posey looked interested; 
she asked the postman to be seated, took 
off her spectacles, and made herself com- 
fortable in her favorite rocker. 

“ Well! I declare ! ” she said. “ Now 
what do you s’ppose he ’s gettin’ letters 
from there for ? Where ’d you say it 
was ? ” 

“ Plumtree, Indiana/’ replied Mr. 
Willy. “ Little Hanse Brown ’s clerkin’ 
at the store now, and he says Zebedee V. 
gets a letter from there every two or three 
times a week.” 

Mrs. Aaron and Mr. Willy looked at 
each other intently for a minute. Then 
Mrs. Aaron said : 

“ I ’d jest like to know what Zebedee V. 
Slocum ’s up to now.” 

“ Yes ’m,” said Mr. Willy, “ I reckon 
it ’s somethin’ out o’ the common.” 

He had no explanation to offer, how- 
21 


ZEBEDEE V 


ever, and it was not until several weeks 
later that he brought further news with 
the mail. As he hopped from his 
wagon he called out his usual cheery 
greeting. 

“ Why, good evenin’, Cousin Annie 
Lee. Nice ba’my day, ain’t it? ” 

“ I never pay much ’tendon to 
the weather,” replied Mrs. Posey. 
“ Weather ’s bound to happen anyways, 
and I never could see ’t forecastin’ it and 
prayin’ for it does a mite o’ good, ex- 
ceptin’ to them as makes a livin’ by so 
doin’.” 

“ Well ’m, maybe that ’s so. But it 
cert’n’y is gettin’ real springy.” 

“ Spring gen’lly follers winter,” af- 
firmed Mrs. Aaron. “ I prefer the fall o’ 
the year, myself, though that ’s a matter 
of choice.” 

“ Yes, ma’am, that it is, and they ’s 
22 


ZEBEDEE V 


right smart of folks like the spring best. 
I ’m kinder partial to it myself. Kinder 
sorter makes you feel like movin’ and 
keepin’ still all at oncet. Zebedee V. says 
springtime ’s made for buildin’ nests and 
lovin’ — ‘ In the spring a young man’s 

fancy begins to think of makin’ love ’ — 
or somethin’ like that.” 

Mrs. Posey sat up straight in her chair. 
“ You don’t mean to tell me,” she said, 
“ that Zebedee V. Slocum ’s thinkin’ of 
gettin’ married again this quick? ” 

“ Mr. Willy smiled, and rubbed his 
chin. “ Looks that-a-way,” he said. 

“ So that ’s what all those letters are 
for up to — what ’s the name of the 
place?” 

“ Plumtree, Indiana. Yes ’m.” 

“ Now who on earth does Zebedee V. 
Slocum know out there ? ” 

“ Well ’m, he ’s tellin’ us about her last 

23 


ZEBEDEE V 


night at the store. A package come ’t he 
thought must be her pixture, but it was 
jest some souvenir postals with views on 
’em. She wrote ’t she was too bashful 
to set for her pixture, and she ’d ruther 
wait anyhow tell he sees her, so ’s he 
won’t form any wrong impression. 
Yes ’m. Zebedee V. says that ’s the kind 
for him. Says he married for wealth 
oncet and a worker oncet, and now he 
wants to wed a true woman, timid and 
gentle, ’at wants a manly champion to 
stand between her and the world, the kind 
’at needs love and pertection to flourish 
like a flower.” 

Mrs. Posey remarked: “ That sounds 
like Zebedee V. Slocum. D’s he expect 
to find all of that? ” 

“ Yes ’m, so he says. That ’s the kind 
he mentioned in his adver ferment.” 

“ Cousin Willy! You don’t mean to 
24 


ZEBEDEE V 

tell me ’t that man actshally advertised 
for a wife? ” 

“ Yes ’m. Little Hanse says he reckons 
ef many people he’abouts did that, ’t this 
post-office ’d soon raise out of the fo’th- 
class list. I noticed Zebedee V. ’s hangin’ 
aroun’ the store right smart, but I never 
suspicioned he ’s gettin’ his own letters, 
not tell jest when I told you about it. I 
jest thought he ’s lonesome like, without 
pore Milly, an’ seekin’ company. Yes ’m.” 

“ Well, I must say I think that ’s a 
disgrace to the community. To adver- 
tise for a wife, with plenty of unmar- 
ried ladies right here in Pocahontas ! 
Not that any one of ’em would have 
Zebedee V. Slocum, not ef he ’s to ask 
’em on bended knee. But to advertise in 
the papers ! ” 

“ Yes ’m,” said the postman, “ that ’s 
a right expensive way, it cert’n’y is. I 

25 


ZEBEDEE V 


reckon it was n’t what you might call a 
real necessity, things bein’ as they are.” 

“ Hum,” said Mrs. Aaron; then, “ Did 
he say much about her, Cousin Willy?” 
she asked. 

“ He says she used to teach school, and 
late years she ’s been nursin’ a aged rela- 
tive tell he died.” 

“ I reckon the aged relative left her 
well off, or Zebedee V. Slocum ’d never 
be makin’ up to her.” 

“ Well ’m, he says he wants to marry 
his ideal woman oncet in his life, and he 
cain’t find her he’abouts.” 

Mrs. Posey sniffed. “ Zebedee V. Slo- 
cum’s ideals are mighty apt to have silver 
linin’s,” she said, as she closed the door 
after Mr. Willy. 


26 


\ 


IV 


The most interesting news of all was 
brought by the carrier one afternoon in 
early midsummer. 

“ Why, good evening Cousin Annie 
Lee/' he called out as he was tying his 
horse. “ You ’d jest oughter been to the 
store day befo’ yest’day. I tell you what, 
that ’s the greatest thing I ever see.” He 
sat down and began fanning and rocking. 
Mrs. Aaron Posey waited a few seconds, 
then said impatiently: 

“ What happened? ” 

“ Well ’m,” said Mr. Willy, with a rem- 
iniscent chuckle, “ you ’d oughter been 
there, that ’s all. You know ’m, we all 
went down to see Zebedee V. off, ’cause 
he was goin’ to Balt’mer to meet his bride 
27 


ZEBEDEE V 


from Plumtree, Indiana. They was to 
get married in Balt’mer an’ nen come on 
home. Zebedee V., he got kinder warmed 
up by the occasion, and talked right smart 
about her. Said her name was Flora, and 
that she cert’n’y must be mighty fond of 
a man to come all that way to meet him. 
Said he could jest pixture her in his 
mind’s eye, gettin’ into a big city like 
Balt’mer all tired out and skeered, and a 
wonderin’ whether he ’d meet her or not. 
Said sometimes his heart misgave him for 
uprootin’ sech a tender flower and trans- 
plantin’ her into a strange neighborhood. 
He said he reckoned it would n’t be a safe 
thing for everybody to do, but it was jest 
in such cases that experience tells, and 
he ’d oughter be able to manage any 
woman, livin’ or dead. Unc’ Lewis Cary 
up and ast him if he ’d told her he ’s mar- 
ried twicet befo’; and he said natchelly, 
28 


ZEBEDEE V 


that he was n’t the man to deceive a young 
and trustin’ female. Cousin Julius Todd 
wanted to know what she said to eight 
child’en, and Zebedee V. said he reckoned 
she did n’t rightly take in they ’s eight of 
’em. He said he mentioned his motherless 
little ones, and she said she guessed she 
could stand ’em. Zebedee V. said he 
reckoned she was n’t much bigger ’n his 
eldest, and they ’d ! all be like playful 
child’en together. Well ’m, whilst he ’s 
showin’ us the marriage license and 
talkin’ about matrimony bein’ the gate to 
heaven, a whistle blowed. We all thought 
it was the down train; so we went out 
onto the platform with Zebedee V. But 
it was n’t his train; it was the train from 
Balt’mer. And who do you think got 
off?” 

“ Flora,” said Mrs. Posey. 

“ Yes ’m, that ’s jest exactly who did. 

29 


ZEBEDEE V 


But they was n't ary one of us guessed it 
first sight. No indeedy ! They was n't 
even a warnin' flutter inside o' Zebedee 
V. ! " Mr. Willy smiled reminiscently. 
He paused and rocked, smacking the palms 
of his hands on the arms of the chair, and 
chuckling in a way no woman could be 
expected to endure. 

“ For the land's sakes, go on," 
exclaimed Mrs. Posey, impatiently. 
“What'd she look like? What 'd she 
have on? " 

“ Well 'm, Zebedee V.'s anticipations 
had n’t pixtured her very correctly. She 
looks like she 's some oldern 'n he is, and 
she 's consider'ble taller. I reckon hand- 
some is as handsome does; but her hair 
is jest about the color of a clay road in 
the springtime, and she 's got a kinder 
impediment in one of her eyes. It jest 
stands still like, when it rests on you ; and 

30 


ZEBEDEE V 


it gives you a mighty oneasy feeling I 
can tell you ! Makes you feel like turnin’ 
round real quick to find out what she ’s 
lookin’ at behind yo’ head. They ain’t 
nothin’ slow nor easy-goin’ about Flora, 
as I could see ; but she looks like she might 
be real kind when she ain’t crossed. I 
reckon she gen’lly has her own way.” 

“ What ’d she do? ” asked Mrs. Aaron. 

“Well ’m,” said Mr. Willy, “maybe 
you won’t believe it, but what I ’m tellin’ 
is a fact. Jest as soon as ever her foot lit 
on the platform of Pocahontas, a breeze 
sprung up! Yes, ma’am, that’s what it 
did ! And from then on things went right 
lively for an hour. It took the conductor 
and the brakeman both to help her off with 
her belongings; she had two baskets and 
two valises and a telescope, and a hat box 
and some little bundles, all in the car with 
her, not to mention a poll-parrot in a cage; 

3i 


ZEBEDEE V 


and she had two trunks in the baggage 
car. She got ’em all piled up on the plat- 
form, and in less time ’n you could wink 
at she ’s cornin’ a-huntin’ for Zebedee V. 
Slocum. Z. V. cert’n’y did miss his guess 
about her; Flora ain’t of a retirin’ dispo- 
sition. She come right along askin’ for 
him.” Mr. Willy paused for breath and 
effect. 

“ Served him right,” said Mrs. Aaron. 

“ Yes ’m. Well ’m, ’pon my soul and 
body, I could n’t tell what happened first. 
She found Zebedee V., and she found the 
license, and she found the minister, and 
she married Zebedee V. right then and 
there. I don’t remember hearin’ him say 
one solitary word, but I reckon he must 
’a’ spoke durin’ the ceremony; ’cause she 
married him all right. Trust Flora to see 
to that! She had her things piled in my 
Dayton, and me a-drivin’ her and Zebe- 
32 


ZEBEDEE V 

dee V. off home, ’fore I as much as come 
to.” 

“ Oh, you drove ’em home, did you? ” 
asked Mrs. Posey, leaning forward in her 
chair, her eyes sparkling with enjoyment. 

“ Yes ’m, that I did,” said the postman, 
“ though how I come to do it is more ’n 
I can tell you. First thing I knew there 
we were, me and the trunks and the poll- 
parrot on the front seat, and her and 
Zebedee V. settin’ up behind. When we 
got to the place, there was all the eight 
lined up inside the fence, lookin’ out over 
the spikes. It made a good deal of an 
effect, I can tell you ! Course Flora 
could n’t know that ’s jest the way they 
mostly spend their time. It made you 
think of a regiment or a lodge drawn up 
at a funeral or somethin’! Oh, it looked 
great, it did ! All ’s needed was a flag and 
a drum ! ” 


33 


ZEBEDEE V 


“ What ’d she say? ” asked Mrs. Posey. 

“ She looked at ’em real hard, an’ nen 
she said to Zebedee V., ‘ Are all o’ them 
yours ?’ says she. Zebedee V., he says, 
‘ Yes, my love, them ’s mine and yours/ 
An’ nen she got down; and I must say 
she spoke right nice to the child’en. Zebe- 
dora seemed to take to her right off. I 
reckon she ’ll do right by ’em. Anyways 
they could n’t be much worse off ’n they 
have been ! 

“ I ’s startin’ to help Jeromy Fount-le- 
Roy inside with the trunks when she up 
and thanks me, and says she would n’t 
trouble me further, as ’t was her husband’s 
place to carry in the trunks. Zebedee V. 
begun to say somethin’, but I noticed her 
eye was n’t roamin’ none jest then, and so 
Zebedee V. took a holt o’ one handle and 
Jeromy took a holt o’ the other. But Mis’ 
Slocum, she said, ‘ You put that down, 
34 


ZEBEDEE V 


Jeromy. Yo’ Pa ’s jest give you to me, and 
I ain’t a-goin’ to let no child o’ mine handle 
trunks whilst he ’s still a-growin\ That 
ain’t too heavy for yo’ Pa.’ Yes ’m. 
That ’s what she said. When I drove off, 
Zebedee V.’s a-totin’ her things into the 
house, and her and the child’en ’s watchin’ 
him. Them child’en cert’n’y did look 
s’prised like. Yes ’m.” 

“ Well,” said Mrs. Aaron, with a deep 
breath, “ ef that don’t beat all I ever 
heard ! I never expected to live to see the 
day that Zebedee V. Slocum did any real 
work. Have you heard of him sence? ” 

“ Have I?” quoted Mr. Willy. 
“Well’m, I jest reckon I have! First 
thing yest’day mornin’ I drove by his 
place, and there ’s Zebedee V. in the back 
yard sawin’ wood, with the child’en jest 
standin’ off at a distance lookin’ on, and 
that poll-parrot hangin’ out on the side 
35 


ZEBEDEE V 


po’ch passing remarks. Then when I ’s 
takin’ around the mail I see him clearin’ 
up the yard, and the grass was all cut. 
Don’t look like the same place, exceptin’ 
for the fence and the house. 

“ Last night I ’s jest startin’ from the 
store, and Zebedee V. come off ’n the 
church steps to meet me. I ast him why 
he did n’t come on in to the store, and he 
said he didn’t feel much like joinin’ in 
comp’ny that night. He give me a quar- 
ter, and ast me to get him a pipe and some 
terbacco, on the quiet like. Said he had n’t 
had a smoke all day, and he thought he ’d 
shorely die befo’ mornin’ ef he did n’t get 
some smoke in his lungs right soon. So I 
went back and bought him a pipe and 
some terbacco, an’ nen we set on the 
church steps quite a while. The smokin’ 
seemed to cheer him up right smart, and 
he told me all about his first two wives, 
3b 


ZEBEDEE V 


how good they was, and easy-goin’ ; and 
he said he knew it was n’t right to wish 
people back in their misery, but he cer- 
t’n’y had loved them two. Long about ten 
o’clock we begun to go towards his house, 
and he said Flora told him they ’s two 
things she ’d always made up her mind 
her husband, if she got one, should n’t do, 
and one was to smoke or chew, and the 
other was to stay out late. Zebedee V. 
said he reckoned he might as well humor 
her about the smokin’, and it made him 
sick to chew, anyhow; but as for stayin’ 
out late, he ’d have to use his own jedg- 
ment. Said they ’s always some things a 
man has to decide for himself, anyways, 
and the way to make a woman understan’ 
that was jest to go ahead and do ’em.” 

“ And him twice a widower ! ” Mrs. 
Aaron remarked. 

“ Yes ’m,” Mr. Willy acknowledged. 
37 


ZEBEDEE V 


“ Well ’m, he ’s goin’ on tellin’ me how to 
manage a woman, when to give in and 
when to stand fast and firm, when we 
come to his place and started aroun’ to the 
side po’ch. First thing we turned the 
corner we both stood right stock still. 
Yes ’m. That’s what we did! They ’s 
somethin’ white up on the po’ch, dost 
alongside o’ the door. 1 jest whispered 
to him, ‘ Laws,’ I says, ‘ she ’s waitin’ for 
you, Z. V.,’ I says, and I started to get 
outen the way; but he grabbed a holt o’ 
my arm. ‘ Wait a minute,’ s’ys he, ‘ they 
ain’t ’ny hurry.’ I says, ‘ Z. V., ef I was 
you I ’d never go roun’ to that side po’ch. 
Ain’t they any other way you can get in ? ’ 
So he crep’ up to the front door and tried 
it, but it ’s locked tight. Then he tried 
eve’y shutter on the front of the house and 
down the side, and I went along to keep 
him comp’ny. But they ’s all shet tight, 


ZEBEDEE V 


too. They was n’t anything else to do but 
to take the side po’ch, so we crep’ aroun’ 
the corner again. She had n’t budged ; 
and I says, ‘ Laws, Z. V., maybe she ’s 
asleep and you can step over her ! ’ So 
he took off his shoes and snooped along 
up, and I walked on the grass so ’s not to 
make any noise. And when we got up 
real dost, what do you suppose it was, 
Cousin Annie Lee? ” 

"How sh’d I know?” exclaimed Mrs. 
Aaron, impatiently. 

“ Well, ma’am,” said Mr. Willy, im- 
pressively, “ it jest beat anything I ever 
see in all my life ! It was n’t a single, 
solitary soul! No ’m, not one livin’ soul! 
I tell you what, I reckon Flora ’ll be the 
one to stand fast and firm in that f am’ly ! 
Cousin Annie Lee, there was a sheet folded 
in half and laid out on the floor o’ the 
po’ch right in front o’ the door, and a 
39 


ZEBEDEE V 


piller at one end of it, and a blanket turned 
down. Yes ’m, that ’s what it was! And 
that door was locked tight, too.” 

Mr. Willy looked at his cousin intently 
for a moment, as if trying to convey the 
full meaning of his words. Mrs. Aaron’s 
tightly closed lips had taken on their 
humorous downward twist. Then Mr. 
Willy went on. “ I never see anything 
equal to the sight of Zebedee V. a-standin’ 
there in his stockin’ feet, with his shoes in 
his hand, a-lookin’ at that bed laid out on 
the floor of the po’ch. He said he cert’n’y 
hadn’t looked forward to spendin’ none 
of his honeymoon a-takin’ the fresh-air 
cure. I felt so bad for him, I told him I 
reckoned I better be goin’. Yes ’m.” 

Mrs. Aaron Posey settled back in her 
rocker, and it was several minutes before 
she spoke. Then, “ I ’m goin’ to call on 
that woman to-morrer,” she said. 

40 


V 


Mrs. Aaron was not the only one who 
went to call on the new Mrs. Zebedee V. 
The wedding was the talk of Pocahontas 
for weeks, and everyone was anxious to 
meet the bride. Her first appearance at 
church — and she did not go until she had 
made suitable clothes for all the eight — 
was the greatest sensation in years. Zeb- 
edee V. was not a church member; his 
children had been brought up, as Mrs. 
Aaron always declared, “ jest any which 
a way ” ; but it was evident that a new 
regime had begun for the little Slocums 
as well as for their father. It was a proud 
day for Flora, and a prouder one for 
Pocahontas and the Methodist minister, 
when ten Slocums marched into church, 
4i 


ZEBEDEE V 


clad in new raiment, eight of them looking 
a little frightened, one sulky, and one 
triumphant. 

Mrs. Aaron's friendship for the new- 
comer had ripened rapidly, and her sisters 
had been pleased to follow her example. 
Mrs. Sissy, indeed, made the most of their 
distant relationship, and helped with the 
sewing. Miss Julia Higgins, as a person 
of elegant leisure compared to the mar- 
ried women, had gone to Baltimore with 
Flora's shopping list; even Mrs. Aaron 
helped, by taking the two youngest boys 
home with her to get them out of Flora's 
way; and after a week Zebedora came 
too. 

The girl was a prime favorite with Mrs. 
Aaron, and dearly loved by Mr. Posey; 
it was what Mrs. Zebedee V. had said 
about her the day of Mrs. Posey's first call 
that began their friendship. 

42 


ZEBEDEE V 


“ And Zora,” Mrs. Slocum said, 
“ Zora, poor little thing, looks as if she 
never had a minute of girlhood in her life ! 
Why, the first morning I was here, did n’t 
I find her up and making the fire when I 
got downstairs ? ” 

“ I reckon she ’s made it since she could 
walk,” Mrs. Aaron remarked. 

“ I found out as much,” said Flora. 
“ But it did n’t take me long to put an end 
to that ! I told her to go upstairs and tell 
her pa to hurry down. He ’s been makin’ 
the fires ever since ! ” 

Mrs. Aaron smiled, and put her bonnet 
strings back over her shoulders. “ I ’ve 
known Zebedee V. Slocum longer ’n you 
have,” she said, “ and I can put it forth 
as my opinion that exercise won’t hurt 
him.” 

“ It don’t hurt anybody,” Flora de- 
clared. “Land! if I could n’t stir around, 
43 


ZEBEDEE V 


I ’d die ! But Zora ’s got to be looked 
after, Mrs. Posey. She ’s on my mind 
more than any of ’em. She ’s carried this 
family about long enough, and the sooner 
she finds out she ’s got a mother the better 
it ’ll be for all concerned.” 

“ Why, you don’t think she minds your 
bein’ here, do you? ” Mrs. Aaron asked. 

Flora shook her head. “ Well, it ’s a 
change for her, you know. We must 
admit that. And it takes anybody a little 
while to get used to a change.” 

“ The pore child ’s been worked to death 
so long, I reckon she ’s forgot what any- 
thing else is like. It jest seems strange 
to her ; don’t you reckon that ’s it ? ” 

Flora laughed a little. “ Maybe. But ” 
— she looked at the older woman some- 
what deprecatingly — “ but she actually 
resents seein’ her pa work. She flew right 
out at me the other day, and said she ’d 
44 


ZEBEDEE V 


always done for him, and did n’t see why 
she should n’t keep right on. Poor little 
thing! I wanted to take her in my arms 
and hug her ; but we have n’t got that far 
yet.” 

Both the childless women were stirred 
with maternal tenderness towards the slip 
of a girl who felt so maternally towards 
her father. 

“ Maybe you better let me take her 
home for a little visit,” Mrs. Aaron 
suggested. 

“ Not quite yet,” Flora replied. “ She 
better get a little more used to seeing me 
here first. And besides, I do most dread- 
fully want to fix her up a little bit. Land! 
she hasn’t a decent dress to her name; 
and as for underclothes ! ” She shook 
her head, and Mrs. Aaron understood. 
“ She ’s as pretty as a picture, if I do say 
it of my own stepchild ; and I ’m just ach- 
45 


ZEBEDEE V 

in g to get her dressed up the way a girl 
ought to be.” 

“ I wonder if my lawn with the black- 
and-white pansy would n’t cut over for 
her?” Mrs. Aaron suggested. 

But Flora smiled and shook her head. 
“ Thank you and thank you again,” she 
said. “ But I think you and all the rest o’ 
Pocahontas have done enough for this 
family. I got a little money o’ my own, 
and I mean to use it in ways I want to. 
This here ’s the first way.” 

So the sewing began, and as soon as 
Zora was fitted out to her stepmother’s 
satisfaction, she was packed off to visit 
Mrs. Aaron, and, as Flora told her when 
she kissed her good-bye as tenderly as if 
she had been all her own, to get some 
roses into her cheeks and some fat on her 
bones. 

Mr. Willy took her out to the Posey 
46 


ZEBEDEE V 


farm in his Dayton. “ Here ’s a ve’y val- 
uable registered bundle for you,” he said, 
when Mrs. Aaron and her husband and 
the little boys came out to the wagon to 
meet them. “ It ’s marked ‘ HANDLE 
WITH CARE/ and I reckon that means 
you got to take mighty good care of it and 
feed it up right smart. ’Cause it don’t 
weigh as much as it oughter.” 

Zora kissed him on the cheek with the 
unthinking familiarity of long devotion. 
“ Uncle Willy, you go see Pa every day 
while I ’m gone, you hear ? ” she admon- 
ished him. 

The girl had worked and gone weighted 
with responsibility too long, however, to 
respond at once to rest and good care. 
The roses did not come, and good Mrs. 
Aaron, wondering if she were homesick or 
had something on her mind, used to look 
after her with very tender eyes when she 
47 


ZEBEDEE V 


sent her out with the boys to get the early 
vegetables for dinner or to gather eggs. 
One evening she found the girl huddled 
on the doorstep in the twilight, looking off 
towards Pocahontas Center ; somehow, 
although she had not herself wept within 
the memory of man, she knew that there 
must be tears in Zora’s eyes. 

“ I would n't fret, honey, ef I was you, 
and had as bright a time ahead of me as 
you have.” 

But Zora’s head went down upon her 
knees. “ I jest can’t bear to think o’ that 
woman a-orderin’ of my Pa around ! ” she 
wailed. 

Mrs. Aaron felt in honor bound to re- 
spect the girl’s loyalty, but later she took 
it out on Mr. Posey — as she did most 
things. 

“ A body ’d think she was a man, she ’s 
that bewitched with Zebedee V. Slocum! 

48 


ZEBEDEE V 


Daughter or no daughter, ef he was parent 
to me I ’ d see through him ! " 

“ Now, now,” said Mr. Posey, who was 
well accustomed to his wife's outbursts. 
“ The child ain't well, that 's all the matter 
with her. She 's got plenty o' sense, and 
it ain't going to take her long to get used 
to Mis' Slocum. But she ain’t well." 

That set Mrs. Aaron thinking, and the 
next afternoon she sent the children off 
after strawberries, and went out to the 
barn to her husband. 

“ Mr. Posey," she said, “ I ain't never 
heard nothin' actually against that young 
man that 's settled in Pocahontas as a 
doctor, have you ? " 

Mr. Posey looked a little astonished. 
“ Why, no," he replied, holding on to the 
rheumatic spot in his back that was so 
apt to give a twinge when he stood up too 
suddenly. 


49 


ZEBEDEE V 


“ And he ’s jest from out the medicine 
schools, and he ’s young and good-lookin’. 
I wisht you ’d hitch up and go down for 
him. I want him to prescribe for Zora.” 

Where Zora was concerned Mr. Posey 
would have gone to the ends of the earth, 
and it was not long before the young doc- 
tor had charge of the case, as he called it. 
He took Zora for a child, at first, so little 
and slight was she. Mrs. Aaron told him 
her age, however, when she went out to 
his buggy with him. 

“ She ’s had too much father, that ’s 
what ’s the matter with her,” she told 
him. “ Maybe you J ve met him, Zebedee 
V. Slocum ? Zora ’s his eldest, and she ’s 
been working for the family fifteen years, 
she bein’ now seventeen.” 

“ What, that child ? ” the young doctor 
exclaimed. 

“ Um hum. And, praise be, now she ’s 
50 


ZEBEDEE V 


got a new ma, and her and me ’s fixin’ 
to get the girl into bein’ a girl, like she 
ought to be. You do your part, young 
man, and Pocahontas shall hear of it.” 

The young man laughed, and found 
many an occasion afterwards to laugh 
still more. Whether it was the magic of 
his prescriptions or of his smile, roses 
began to come to Zora; and at the end 
of two weeks she suggested, of her own 
accord, that she would like to go down to 
Pocahontas to see “ how Ma ’s gettin’ on 
— and Pa ! ” and it was the doctor who 
drove her down. 

Flora welcomed her with open arms, 
and there were so many delightful 
changes at home that Zora soon found 
herself well enough .to return. It was 
really she who did most towards getting 
her father to church; for Mr. Slocum, 
although he stood in wholesome awe of 
5i 


ZEBEDEE V 


his wife, was also beginning to respond 
to her excellent care of him, her delicious 
cooking, the wholesome exercise which 
she made him take — was, in fact, begin- 
ning rather to feel his oats. 

But he went to church ; and during the 
sermon he became inspired with the idea 
which later swept him on to fame. 
There was too much to do about the farm 
during the summer for him to spare time 
enough to develop it. For that, it needed 
the short days of late autumn, the early 
darkness which allowed him to steal away 
back of the barn for a surreptitious pipe 
before Flora missed him, and for the 
comparative leisure to which her ener- 
getic forehandedness forced him long 
before his neighbors were, so to speak, 
battened down for the winter. 


52 


VI 


The news reached Mrs. Aaron Posey 
one afternoon in November, when the 
winds and rain had been keeping her at 
home. She looked out of her sitting-room 
window, over her whizzing sewing- 
machine, and nodded to Mr. Willy, who 
had just tied the weary Alexander very 
securely to the fence. 

“ Good evenin', Cousin Annie Lee," he 
called out, cheerily. He had in his hand 
a paper in a yellow wrapper, and opened 
the door of the sitting-room without 
ceremony of knocking. 

Mrs. Aaron first clicked up the presser 
and snapped the thread, then said, 

“ Why, good evenin', Cousin Willy; got 
some mail for us ? " 


53 


ZEBEDEE V 


“ Only a seed catalogue. Cousin Han- 
son Brown bought his seed from this 
party last year.” 

“ You seen Cousin Hanson to-day? I 
heard Little Hanse hed a getherin' on his 
hand.” 

“ Yes 'm, he has so. But I reckon it 
ain't going to 'mount to much. He 's 
jest got a situation with Zebedee V. as 
sup'intendent.” 

“ What ! What you talkin' about, 
Cousin Willy? ” 

“ Yes 'm,” said Mr. Willy, with great 
gusto, and settling himself farther back in 
his chair. “ I 's right smart su'prised my- 
self when I heard it. Little Hanse 's got a 
position with Zebedee V. as sup'intendent.” 

“ As sup'intendent ! ” exclaimed Mrs. 
Aaron, incredulously. “ Sup’intend what, 
I 'd like to know? Will you please tell 
me what that man 's up to now? ” 

54 


ZEBEDEE V 


“ Well ’m,” said Mr. Willy, rocking 
comfortably, “ I reckon he ’s got a holt of 
a right good thing. He ’s got up what ’s 
called the Pocahontas Construction Com- 
pany, and the idea is to make the Center 
a good deal more of a metrop’lis than it 
is at present. They ain’t no reason why 
Pocahontas ain’t a bigger place. We got 
a railroad and a river, and it only needs 
a dam to make all the water power needed 
for half a dozen mills. We ’re in the 
middle of a rich farming distric’, and all 
we have to do is to give it a air and make 
it known in the over-crowded centers o’ 
population. Yes ’m.” 

Mrs. Aaron Posey stared a moment, 
then sniffed. She recognized the source 
of Mr. Willy's arguments. 

“ What ’s all that got to do with 
Little Hanse’s being sup’intendent ? ” she 
demanded. 


55 


ZEBEDEE V 


“ He ’s sup’intendent o' the construc- 
tion comp’ny.” 

“ What , s Zebedee V.?” 

“ Well ’m, he ’s pres’dent and gen’l 
manager. Yes ’m.” 

“What does Flora say to it?” Mrs. 
Posey asked. 

“ It ain’t a woman’s affair,” Mr. Willy 
evaded, evidently quoting again. 

“ Hum ! ” Mrs. Aaron held herself 
very straight, and jerked her head. 
“ What ’s he goin’ to construe’ first ? ” 

“ Well ’m, I reckon he ’s got to con- 
strue’ the comp’ny first, and then he ’s 
goin’ to build the dam.” 

Mr. Willy Posey smiled broadly. Mrs. 
Aaron began to rock more vigorously; 
her lips were set in a firm, straight line, 
while she cogitated upon what she knew 
of Zebedee V., and what she had heard 
of construction companies; but even a 
56 


ZEBEDEE V 


woman will, sometimes, hit a nail squarely 
on its head, and Mrs. Aaron might be 
said to have done so when she asked, 

“ Look a here, Cousin Willy, where ’s 
the money a-comin’ from?” 

Mr. Willy hesitated a moment. 
“ Well ’m,” he said, “ a construction com- 
ply gene’lly has shares that sells for so 
much apiece. Then the money they get 
for constructin’ goes to pay the interest 
on the shares. Yes ’m.” 

“ Does Zebedee V. Slocum expect to sell 
his shares in the centers o’ population, or 
jest around here? ” 

“ Well ’m,” said Mr. Willy with dig- 
nity, as he rose to go, “ I reckon we all 
are able to s’pport home in^w^tries. 
Cousin Hanson Brown ’s took one hun- 
d’ed shares already, and Mr. Abel Hig- 
gins ’s took a hund’ed. Unc’ Lewis 
Cary ’s took fifty, and ole Zeb Slocum and 
57 


ZEBEDEE V 


Frank Slocum ’s took some. I reckon 
Zebedee V. ’s got a holt of a right good 
thing this time. Yes ’m.” 

Mrs. Aaron had walked to the side of 
the road with him. “ Yes,” she said, “ I 
reckon he has. I never knew one o’ Zeb- 
edee V. Slocum’s little games but what 
turned out heads I win, tails you lose.” 

Mrs. Aaron went about getting her sup- 
per that night with set lips and deter- 
mined air, as did many another good wife 
in the vicinity of Pocahontas. The new 
construction company became at once the 
matter of first consideration. All of the 
men who had come under the spell of 
Zebedee V.’s eloquence at the store were 
entranced with the idea of the greater 
Pocahontas, of seeing their village become 
a thriving center of business activity. 
Already in their imaginations they heard 
the sweet music of the rattle of machin- 
58 


ZEBEDEE V 


ery, the jangling and sizzing of electric 
cars, the clatter of freight at the station, 
the shuffling of many feet on the side- 
walks. They saw their small investments 
thriving, bringing them wealth hitherto 
undreamed of. 

The women alone were skeptical. No 
one liked to speak of it to Mrs. Slocum, 
and no one thought any the less of her for 
her husband's ebullitions; they all knew, 
from their own experience, the difficulty 
of keeping a husband always within 
bounds; and unlike Flora, they had all 
known Zebedee V. for years. Mrs. Aaron 
Posey was by no means the only one who 
saw with foreboding her husband's money 
going into what she believed a most pre- 
carious enterprise; she was not the only 
one who used against it every argument 
and persuasion at her command. 

The company was organized, however, 
59 


ZEBEDEE V 

and its shares were sold — not on the 
stock exchanges of the cities, but to the 
loyal voters of Pocahontas. Its president 
was not idle. Before the first freeze a 
small dam was thrown across the river, 
not far below the covered bridge, “ as a 
starter,” Mr. Slocum explained, and the 
water had scarcely begun to rise back of 
it when the company engaged in its second 
undertaking. 

Mrs. Aaron Posey heard of that, too, 
from the carrier, as her husband was 
aware when he got home from the store 
that afternoon; she was silent at supper, 
and, moreover, there was no hot bread, 
and the coffee was weak. There are ways 
of making a man feel his dependence and 
his duty! 

It was too late in the season to sit out 
of doors, so Mr. Posey had to stay in the 
sitting-room. He had read every adver- 
60 


ZEBEDEE V 


tisement in his “ Sun Paper,” and the next 
would not come until Monday. He was 
primed with news, and longing to tell it, 
but the wife of his bosom maintained a 
forbidding silence. When she had fin- 
ished putting away the dishes she brought 
in a square, white hat-box, set it on the 
table with a thump that made the flame 
fly up the lamp-chimney, and took out her 
best velvet bonnet. Mr. Posey watched 
her with amazement; when she began to 
untrim the bonnet, with quick little snips 
of the scissors and ripping jerks, his curi- 
osity broke bounds. 

“ For Gord’s sake, Annie Lee,” he ex- 
claimed, “air you gone crazy?” 

“ Not as I know of,” said his wife. As 
she ripped out the stitches she put the 
small bits of thread into her mouth, and 
her voice sounded muffled, coming as it 

must from between closed teeth. 

61 


ZEBEDEE V 


“ What you doin’ with your best velvet 
bonnet ? ” 

“ I ’m gettin’ it ready for the Chris’mas 
missionary box to the Indians, that ’s 
what I ’m doin’. I guess I won’t need it 
any more, myself.” 

“ Now, Annie Lee, I don’t see what you 
doin’ that for,” said Mr. Posey, rather 
weakly. Her answer was a jerk that 
ripped off one string. “ I don’t see what 
you want to send it to the Indians for.” 

“ It ’s to be hoped the missionaries gets 
’em to church sometimes,” said Mrs. 
Aaron. “ Somebody might ’s well have 
the use o’ my bonnet, seein’ ’s I won’t have 
any church to wear it to.” 

Mr. Posey faced her squarely, leaning 
forward, his hands grasping the arms of 
his chair. “ Why ain’t you goin’ to have 
any church to wear it to? ” he demanded. 

“ I reckon by the time Zebedee V. Slo- 
62 


ZEBEDEE V 

cum ’s slid that church down the hill they 
won’t be enough of it left to set in, 
and I ’m downright certain they won’t be 
enough money left outside of his pockets 
to pay for a new one.” 

Mr. Posey saw the futility of a direct 
answer. He addressed the clock on the 
mantel-piece: “You cain’t expect a 

woman to understand business matters ! ” 
Mrs. Posey chewed her threads in si- 
lence for a few moments, but she was 
only collecting her forces. 

“ Then some men would be a good sight 
better off if they knew as little about ’em 
as women,” she said. “ Ef I was n’t a 
good member o’ the Meth’dist church, 
when they is a Meth’dist church, I ’d be 
willin’ to bet right smart that not one 
woman in Pocahontas would be taken in 
by Zebedee V. Slocum like the men ’s 
been.” 


63 


ZEBEDEE V 


“ I don’t see how a dividend-payin’ con- 
struction comp’ny can take anybody in,” 
said Mr. Posey. 

“ You had any dividends yet? ” 

“ Annie Lee, you cain’t expect — ” 

“ I ain’t expectin’ ! Don’t you think 
I ’m such a fool as to expect to get any- 
thing out o’ that comp’ny. I know better, 
and so ought you. The only person that ’ll 
get anything out o’ that will be Zebedee 
V. Slocum.” 

“ I cain’t see what all the women ’s so 
down on Zebedee V. for; I cain’t to save 
my life!” 

Mrs. Aaron sniffed. “ I don’t relish 
payin’ for one-ninth of another woman’s 
iron fence,” she said. 

“ Now you know very well, Annie Lee, 
that that fence is samples.” 

“ I don’t know no sech thing. What I 
do know is that one part of his fence is 
64 


ZEBEDEE V 


like ours, and one part is like Cousin Jo- 
seph Todd's, and the front gate part is like 
Cousin Hanson Brown's ; I know they 's 
nine different kinds of iron fences around 
Zebedee V. Slocum's front yard, and each 
piece of fence is like some other iron fence 
that he sold here in Pocahontas. And I 
know he has a fence on four sides, if it is 
in nine patterns, and not another soul in 
the place has a fence but on one side. I 
know we paid for one-ninth of that fence 
of his, and therefore I say he 's a rascal. 
That 's what he is, a rascal. How a sen- 
sible woman like Flora Slocum can stand 
him does beat me ! " 

Mr. Posey remonstrated. “ I don't 
think you got any call to say that, Annie 
Lee. At the time everybody in Pocahon- 
tas put up a fence, Zebedee V. showed 
every man in the store a letter from 
the fence comp’ny saying it was sendin' 
65 


ZEBEDEE V 

him samples, and that fence of his is 
samples.” 

“ I don’t believe it. I don’t believe a 
word he says.” 

“ You believed him all right when he 
come out here to sell you a bakin’ pan and 
electric bells, I notice ! ” 

“ A bakin’ pan ain’t a iron fence, nor 
yet a construction comp’ny. Any woman 
knows a good bakin’ pan as soon as she 
sets eyes on it. And I ain’t sorry I bought 
that electric bell, either. I reckon I ’ll get 
a dollar ninety-eight cents’ worth of wear 
out of it before I die. Not but what I do 
think it was queer doings, his givin’ them 
away to everybody in town that could n’t 
afford to buy them.” 

“ That jest goes to prove that he ’s a 
public-sperited man. He wanted Poca- 
hontas to stand in the front ranks of the 
march o’ progress.” 


66 


ZEBEDEE V 


“ So he said. It jest happened to be 
about election time, and he was up for 
highway commissioner.” 

“ Well, I know that. But he had a new 
floor put in the bridge, and the old one 
had been in holes for three years before 
he was elected. ,, 

“ Good thing he did, if he ’s going to 
tote the church over it.” 

Mr. Posey’s fist came down on the table. 
“ Good Lord, ain’t that like a woman ! 
Tote a church over a covered bridge! 
Haw ! haw ! ” 

His laugh was triumphant. Mr. Posey 
had scored, and was a man again. Mrs. 
Posey arose, the bonnet box in her hand. 
The dispute was at an end. She went to 
bed. 


67 


VII 

The next morning, after the singing of 
the last hymn, the minister came to the 
front of the platform, and said that he 
wished to inform the brethren and sis- 
ters of his flock that, with his consent 
and encouragement, a great change had 
been decided upon during the past week 
by those in authority in the church. He 
said: 

“ As the Jews of old loved their city, 
dear friends, so do we love this place 
of our habitation. We wish to see 
this town of Pocahontas in a flour- 
ishin’ condition. We wish to bring in 
the stranger and the wayfa’er from 
the roadside, that he may enjoy with us 
68 


ZEBEDEE V 

the privileges and advantages that are 
ours. We wish to see the old mill down 
yonder by the river-side makin’ the same 
racket that it used to make, and we wish 
to see more mills alongside of it. We 
wish to bring many people from the 
crowded marts of trade to this golden 
opportunity which their cornin’ will bring 
to this town. As the store and the sta- 
tion down yonder have been the brain, so 
to speak, of this great and glorious enter- 
prise, so we may say this church up here 
on the hill has been its heart. Yes, my 
brethren, its heart indeed; for oftentimes 
the very air in this buildin’ has throbbed 
with the unfoldin’ of the secrets of many 
hearts in silent prayer, and the desires 
and thanks of many have been expressed 
through my humble voice. What more 
appropriate, nay, more imperative, there- 
fore, than to join heart and brain, so long 
69 


c 


ZEBEDEE V 


apart? How much better will be the ap- 
pearance of our beloved town, when the 
incomin’ multitude can behold this church 
alongside of the store, than when it cain’t 
see it at all as it is up here on the hill? 
It has been decided, therefore, to have the 
church moved down the hill to the Center, 
and the great undertaken’ has been in- 
vested to the Pocahontas Construction 
Company, of which so many of the flock 
are stockholders. 

“ The brother whose noble brain first 
brought forth the idea of a greater Poca- 
hontas, Mr. Zebedee V. Slocum, con- 
tracts with us to move this church buildin’ 
so gently and securely that not a window 
light shall be broken, not a crack shall 
appear in the plasterin’, not a pew shall 
be upset nor a hymn-book spilled to the 
floor. Moreover, we shall be able to 
hold our We’nesday night prayer-meetin’s 
70 


ZEBEDEE V 


and our Sabbath day services as usual, 
in whatsoever place the church happens 
to be in at the time. All the members of 
the flock have to do is to keep on down 
the road tell they get to the church. We 
shall meet again, brethren, next We’nes- 
day night at seven o’clock.” 

But the brethren met first outside of 
the church door, and to eager questioners 
it was further revealed that the church 
was to stand in its final resting place be- 
side the store on or before the first of 
March following, which was allowing 
nearly three months for its descent “ an’ 
turnin’ around the corner,” as Mr. Willy 
Posey explained. Furthermore, so cer- 
tain was Mr. Slocum of his ability to do 
the work in the specified time, the Poca- 
hontas Construction Company pledged 
itself to forfeit ten dollars for every day’s 
delay after March first. 

7 1 


ZEBEDEE V 


The following Wednesday evening was 
marked by the largest attendance at 
prayer-meeting ever known in the history 
of the congregation. The men were out 
in unbroken ranks, and all the women 
came except those who were bedridden 
or who had no one to leave at home with 
young children. Indeed, two or three 
even brought their babies. The little 
building was crowded, but the meeting 
itself was rather quiet, for there was 
general disappointment at finding the 
church still on its foundation. The yard 
and the road in front showed signs of 
activity; piles of lumber and logs had 
been dumped in inconvenient places, and 
Deacon Julius Todd’s buggy upset; but 
Mrs. Todd fortunately having been one 
of those who stayed at home, the accident 
caused but little commotion. 

On the following Sunday the congre- 

7 2 


ZEBEDEE V 


gation found the church resting on logs 
just in front of its old position. Mrs. 
Aaron Posey declared afterward that she 
had caught “ neurology ” from sitting so 
close to the ground, “ and no cellar under- 
neath/' and thereafter Mr. Aaron Posey 
attended church alone. They had been 
married twenty- three years, and Mr. 
Posey did not refer to the untrimmed 
bonnet that had been sent to the Indians, 
though he heard his wife tell her sister, 
Mrs. Sissy Slocum, that she wore her 
brown felt because it was warmer — 
“ and a blessed good thing I did." 

Mrs. Aaron Posey denied her husband 
the pleasure of discussing the progress 
of the church in its descent, but she heard 
all the news from the postman. One 
Monday afternoon Mr. Willy Posey said: 

“ Yes 'm. It 's down in front of Mr. 
Lewis Lee's house, and old Mis' Lee says 
73 


ZEBEDEE V 


the singin’ yest’day mornin’ heartened her 
up more ’n anythin’ she ’s heard sence 
her stroke. Seem like it was right in 
her room, she says. Yes ’m.” 

“ What they done about Cousin Joseph 
Todd’s fence they run into?” asked Mrs. 
Aaron. 

“ They cain’t do nothin’ with it. 
Cousin Joseph Todd says Zebedee V. ’s 
got to replace it with the piece of his 
fence that ’s like it, an’ I reckon that ’s 
jest what he will have to do. Yes ’m.” 

“ I ’m glad of it. I ’m glad Cousin 
Joseph Todd ’s got spunk enough to make 
Zebedee V. Slocum pay up. It ’ll jest do 
me good every time I see that gap in his 
fence of samples. I wish there was a 
gap as big as the whole fence.” 

In the course of a month the church 
had moved slowly down the road, not 
74 


ZEBEDEE V 


without small accidents and excitements, 
past the rows of gray-stone cottages, in 
front of the disused mill, until early in 
January it stood on the muddy bank of the 
river which ran some twelve or fifteen feet 
below, and about a hundred feet from the 
covered bridge and the road which had 
been its pathway. Then set in the first real 
snow of the winter, for the light flurries 
of December had melted quickly, leaving 
their moisture in the roads and ground. 
For ten days the church waited in the snow, 
and churchgoing lessened perceptibly. 

“ Might V known the winter was n’t 
goin’ to hold off on his account,” said 
Mrs. Aaron Posey. “ What ’s Zebedee 
V. Slocum goin’ to do with the church 
when the snow does melt?’’ 

“ Well ’m” replied the postman, “ he ’s 
got to get her down on to the river, be- 
fore he can get her over.” 

75 


ZEBEDEE V 


“ On to the river ! ” exclaimed Mrs. 
Aaron. “ Does he expect the church to 
float over, or jest to walk across? ” 

“ No, ma’am. Neither. He ’ll work 
her across on logs, same ’s he ’s brought 
her down the hill. He 9 s got logs long 
enough to reach acrost the river. Good 
thing it ain’t any broader ’n it is.” . 

“ How ’s he goin’ to get it down that 
bank?” 

“ Well ’m, when he hitches on the 
horses and mewels he ’ll hitch some on 
the front and some on the back, and the 
front ones ’ll pull her down the bank and 
the back ones ’ll ease her.” 

“ Hum,” said Mrs. Aaron, propheti- 
cally, “ I reckon he ’ll find he cain’t ca- 
joodle dumb animals into doin’ whatso- 
ever he wants, same ’s he can men.” 

Her prophecy was fulfilled; Mr. Slo- 
cum’s plan met with disaster. From the 
76 


ZEBEDEE V 


day when the church reached the bank of 
the stream the elements seemed leagued 
against the Pocahontas Construction 
Company. First came the snow, which 
was the deepest even Uncle Lewis Cary 
could remember; the white drifts piled 
around the church as high as the windows. 
Time was passing, however, and Zebedee 
V. and his young superintendent urged 
their employees to vigorous work. They 
shoveled snow away from the church, 
and they shoveled a wide path to the river, 
finally succeeding in placing their logs 
across it, fastening two, slanting down- 
wards from the top of the bank, to serve 
as a slide. 

Then came the great day when the 
church was to be lowered. The January 
thaw was just beginning, and the tramp- 
ling of many feet made the banks very 
slippery. The delivery of the mail was 
77 


ZEBEDEE V 


late that day, for every man in the vicin- 
ity was on hand to watch the proceed- 
ings. By noon the horses and. mules were 
hitched to the church, some on the oppo- 
site side of the river, ready to pull it, by 
means of long chains and ropes, down the 
steep path to the bed of logs below, and 
some hitched to the back of it, facing 
towards the hill, ready to “ ease her.” At 
first all went well. 

“ It did seem like she ’d slide right 
down into place,” said the postman to 
Mrs. Aaron Posey later in the after- 
noon. 

“ First she moved along over the mud 
like a sleepy tar’pin. The horses and 
mewels on our side of the river backed 
along jest the way they’d oughter; and 
then she reached the aidge of the bank, 
and little by little she begun to stick out 
over it. Yes ’m. It cert’n’y was a unusual 
78 







“ First thing we all knew she begun to topple” 

Page 79 

















































ri 





% 


















* 

















































* 








ZEBEDEE V 


sight to see a church stickin’ out over a 
river, half on land and half out in the 
air. But she did n’t stay that a way very 
long. No ’m. First thing we all knew she 
begun to topple. Zebedee V. saw that’s 
the critical moment. Little Hanse was 
a-drivin’ his horses and mewels on the 
other side of the river for all they ’s 
worth, and Zebedee V. hollered to them 
on our side of the river to start ’em up 
to’rds the hill so ’s to ease the church 
whilst she slid down. Jest a minute be- 
fore that he ’d been a-hollerin’ to ’em to 
back, and I reckon them animals got their 
orders mixed. Yes ’m. ’Stead o’ goin’ 
up hill they jest kept right on backin’, and 
ef little Hanse’s team had n’t a-kept on 
pullin’ mighty hard and fast I reckon the 
church would ’a’ landed on her side. As 
’t was she come down with a jolt and a 
squinch that must ’a’ racked her right 
79 


ZEBEDEE V 


smart. You could jest hear the plasterin' 
failin' down inside." 

Mr. Willy Posey paused for breath; 
Mrs. Aaron exclaimed : 

“ Plasterin' ! For the land's sake, 
Cousin Willy, you don't mean to tell me 
there 's anything at all left o' the church 
after sech a jolt as that! " 

“Yes'm. Oh, yes'm! The outside's 
all right. Zebedee V. had the winder 
lights took out before he started her. 
They ain't any harm done to the outside, 
exceptin' the steeple." 

“ The steeple ! What 's the matter with 
it? " 

“ Well 'm, the jolt kinder loosened the 
roof like, and one side o' the steeple went 
in'ards." 

“ You don’t say! Smashed in? " 

“ No 'm. It ain't smashed. One side 
of it fell inside like, and the steeple 's 
80 


ZEBEDEE V 


pointin’ out over the front door, ’stead of 
standin’ up straight.” 

“Well, I never!” exclaimed Mrs. 
Aaron Posey. “ Ef that don’t beat all ! 
The church in the middle of the river 
settin’ on logs, and the steeple pointin’ 
out over the front door. Ef that ain’t 
downright scandalous ! ” 

“ Yes ’m,” said Mr. Willy Posey as he 
went out, “ it don’t look very dignified, 
that ’s a fact ; but it won’t be out in the 
river long, for Zebedee V. ’s a-goin’ to 
have her up the other bank to-morrer.” 


81 


VIII 

But Mr. Willy was not as good a 
prophet as Mrs. Aaron, for again the ele- 
ments intervened. The thaw set in that 
night in earnest, and as the snow had 
been the deepest known in years, the thaw 
was proportionately heavy. The river 
rose rapidly. The efforts of the con- 
struction company to haul the church 
from its moist bed resulted only in pulling 
the logs loose from the mud which had 
held them in place, and by Sunday the 
rising waters had carried the church 
down stream until it rested against the 
covered bridge. The torrents were les- 
sening, and the church just beginning to 
settle on the rocky river bed, when sud- 
82 


ZEBEDEE V 


denly the weather changed again, and in 
twenty-four hours the church was held 
fast in an icy grip. 

The freshets had washed away some 
wooden trestles of the railroad, so that 
for days there was no mail, and Mrs. 
Aaron Posey had scant news until Thurs- 
day afternoon. 

“ Well, Cousin Annie Lee/’ began Mr. 
Willy Posey, “ they ’s been high doings 
down at the river. Reckon we all ain’t 
had as much excitement as this, not sence 
ever.” 

“ Well, I reckon you might ’s well get 
somethin’ out of it,” said Mrs. Aaron, 
philosophically, “ seein’ ’s you ain’t goin’ 
to have any church left.” 

“Yes’m, that’s a fact! But I reckon 
they ’ll be some left, notwithstandin’ all 
the contrapshuns it ’s been through. 
Co’se the steeple ’ll need fixin’, and they ’ll 
83 


ZEBEDEE V 


have to be right smart of plastering but 
I reckon she ’ll come out in pretty good 
shape otherways.” 

“ I heard they had n’t gotten it out ’n 
the river yet.” 

“ No ’m, that they ain’t. She ’s friz in 
hard and fast, and Unc’ Lewis Cary says 
he cain’t ever remember sech a winter ’s 
this un ’s been, not sence long before the 
War. Yes ’m. The ice is jest piled up 
around that church every w’ich-a-ways, 
and they cert’n’y cain’t do nothin’ tell the 
freeze breaks up.” 

“ Hum ! I reckon by the time that 
church gets set in place pretty much all 
the religion ’ll be friz out of this c’m- 
munity,” said Mrs. Aaron. 

The winter developed into the most 
severe ever known in Maryland, and the 
freeze lasted through all the four weeks 
84 


ZEBEDEE V 


of February and into March. The Poca- 
hontas Construction Company had agreed 
to pay a forfeit for each day’s delay after 
March first. Eighty dollars was due be- 
fore the thaw came, and then for several 
days the water was too high for work, 
although Mr. Slocum took care to anchor 
the church to keep it away from the 
bridge. Long before this, however, pub- 
lic opinion in Pocahontas began to change, 
and expressions of doubt or disapproval 
were frequently heard. 

“ Yes ’m,” said Mr. Willy Posey, 
“ people cert’n’y is gettin’ right dissatis- 
fied. Mr. Abel White says if he ’d a 
known how his good money ’s a-goin’ he 
never would a took ary hund’ed shares of 
that stock, and Mis’ Frank Slocum told 
me Mis’ Moses Cary says she never did 
think it right to move a church anyways, 
and the minister told her ’t it looked to 
85 


ZEBEDEE V 


him like a dispensation of the Lord, ’count 
of movin’ the church from its high hill 
unto a lowly place.” 

“ Seems to me a good deal more like 
the dispensation o’ the Lord,” said Mrs. 
Aaron Posey, severely, “ to serve all you 
men right for bein’ sech dumb fools as to 
get took in by one of Zebedee V. Slocum’s 
schemes.” 

Mr. Willy jumped. “ Laws now, 
Cousin Annie Lee,” he exclaimed, “ Don’t 
you come at me that a way. I reckon 
ef you ’s down at the store and could 
hear Zebedee V. talk, you could n’t stand 
up against him any better ’n the men 
folks.” 

“ Oh, could n’t I ? ” asked Mrs. Aaron 
sarcastically. “ Well, maybe I could n’t. 
And maybe I ’d stand by and watch 
him back a church into a river, too, 
wouldn’t I?” 


86 


ZEBEDEE V 


By the end of March what was left 
of the church stood on the road, “ Like 
unto the Ark on Ararat,” the minister 
said. But no dove of peace flew forth 
from it. It was not until Easter, which 
was late that year, that the congrega- 
tion met again within its walls. The 
Monday following being a holiday, there 
was no mail delivery; but on Tuesday 
Mr. Willy Posey came garrulous with 
news. 

“ Why, good evenin’, Cousin Annie 
Lee,” he began. “ I suppose you heard 
the news ? ” 

“ I reckon that depends on what it is,” 
replied Mrs. Aaron, cannily. 

“ Well ’m,” and Mr. Willy’s voice 
seemed to hold a joyful note, as if he were 
bringing good tidings, “ the Pocahontas 
Construction Company ’s gone out of 
business! Yes ’m.” 


87 


ZEBEDEE V 


“ Hum! I ain’t surprised. Froze out 
er washed out? ” 

“ Well ’m, Zebedee V. says he hopes 
it ’s a temporary retirement, but Cousin 
Hanson Brown says he reckons it ain’t. 
The company was nine hund’ed dollars in 
debt, and the stockholders had to pay up. 
Yes ’m. Little Hanse bein’ only nineteen 
years old, Cousin Hanson had to pay his 
share too, and old Zeb Slocum had to pay 
up for Zebedee V., except what Zebedee 
V. borrowed from his first wife’s Aunt 
Lucy. Unc’ Lewis Cary says he reckons 
Cousin Hanson Brown about expressed 
the sentiments of the community when he 
said Pocahontas like it is will be good 
enough for him hereafter, without br ingin’ 
in hordes o’ foreigners from the marts o’ 
trade. And Cousin Joseph Todd says if 
one construction company can do as much 
damage to this town as this one did, he 
88 


ZEBEDEE V 


ain’t for invitin’ no trusts to come settle 
here. Deacon Julius says it was man- 
aged wrong all through, and we ’d ought 
to ’a’ waited tell the minister’s two years 
was up, and done the movin’ of the church 
in a interval like, and saved the amount 
of the minister’s salary by so doin’. 
Yes ’m.” 

That night after supper Mr. Aaron 
Posey was conscious of something un- 
usual in the atmosphere. His wife went 
about her ordinary evening duties, but 
Mr. Posey, watching her furtively, imag- 
ined that he could detect a slight aggres- 
siveness in her manner, perhaps even an 
assumption of authority. He was sur- 
prised that she did not sit down after the 
supper dishes were put away, but his sur- 
prise turned to wonder, and then to amaze- 
ment, when he saw her bring out the cold 
89 


ZEBEDEE V 


meat, cut off several slices, then lay two 
boiled potatoes on a plate, and arrange 
several other eatables as if for a cold 
meal. 

“ What you doin’ that for, Annie Lee ? ” 
he asked, timidly. 

“ I ’m a-gettin’ your dinner ready for 
to-morrer,” she replied. 

“ Gettin’ my dinner ready now? ” 

“Yes, I am! I’m a-gettin’ it ready 
now. I ain’t ever made you cook for 
yourself yet, have I ? I’m goin’ down to 
Balt’mer to-morrer.” 

Mr. Aaron Posey fairly jumped. “ You 
goin’ to Balt’mer to-morrer? ” 

“ That ’s what I said. I ’m goin’ to 
Balt’mer. An’ I ’m goin’ to-morrer. Ef 
you can afford to spend fifty dollars on 
shares of a fool construction comp’ny, 
and then chip in twenty-two more to help 
Zebedee V. Slocum out of a hole, I reckon 
90 


ZEBEDEE V 


I can afford to go down to Balt’mer and 
buy myself a new bonnet. And that ’s 
jest what I ’m goin’ to do.” 

“ Laws now, Annie Lee,” said Mr. 
Aaron, “ who ’s been tellin’ you all that? ” 
But his wife vouchsafed no answer. 


9i 


IX 


If Mrs. Flora Slocum knew anything 
whatever of the workings and untimely 
end of the ill-fated Pocahontas Construc- 
tion Company, she gave no evidence of it 
to anyone outside her own family. As 
Mrs. Posey said, she had not known Zeb- 
edee V. as long as the women of Pocahon- 
tas; she may have been waiting to know 
more of him ; or it may be that her years 
of experience had taught her the expedi- 
ency of biding her time. Not even Zeb- 
edee V. really knew what his wife thought 
about it ; but if he had been as learned in 
the psychology of the fair sex as he be- 
lieved himself, he might have foreseen 
complications in the future. Flora had 
been managing all her life, and her con- 
92 


ZEBEDEE V 


tact with the world had not taught her 
very much awe of masculine creatures; 
but after all, this was her first experience 
in managing a husband ; and even as hus- 
bands go, Zebedee V. was in a class by 
himself. She might succeed in suppress- 
ing his courage; she might even succeed 
in putting him to work; but his imagina- 
tion was not to be harnessed to things 
mundane ; it was bound to rise unscathed 
from every catastrophe. 

There were a few weeks, after the de- 
scent of the church, when he seemed to 
find the comfort of his own side porch 
preferable to meeting his neighbors at the 
store; but without him the element of 
romance so dear to all men would have 
been absent from Pocahontas ; it was not 
long before they welcomed him among 
them as before. 

For several months the habitual calm 
93 


ZEBEDEE V 


of the neighborhood was unbroken. Then, 
one day in July, Mrs. Aaron Posey was 
moved to ask the carrier, 

“ Who ’s that woman visitin’ Mis’ Julius 
Todd? ” 

Mr. Willy was enjoying a glass of 
buttermilk on his cousin’s side porch; he 
did not answer at once, but seemed intent 
on examining the streaks of milk and little 
bits of butter on the side of his glass. 
Mrs. Aaron shuffled him on. 

“ I said, who ’s that visitin’ Mis’ Julius 
Todd?” 

“ Ma’am?” queried Mr. Willy, with a 
maddeningly absent-minded air. 

Mrs. Aaron’s patience was never long. 
“ For the land’s sake, Cousin Willy, you 
certainly are gettin’ hard o’ hearin’. I 
do hope I ’ll keep all my faculties. If I 
was you I ’d wear my flannels — ” 

“ Yes ’m,” said Mr. Willy, hurriedly. 

94 


ZEBEDEE V 


He was beginning to entertain a certain 
dislike of any reference to signs of youth's 
departing. “ Yes 'm. That 's Miss Boker 
— given name Mary Lou." 

“ Thank you. Now I know jest about 
as much as I did before. I don't know 
what 's got into the men," Mrs. Aaron 
cried. “ I asked Mr. Posey who she was, 
and he said he reckoned you knew about 
as much as anybody else, and stalked out 
to the barn in a huff. And now here are 
you acting like a dumb fool when I ask 
you about her. I certainly would like to 
know what 's come over everybody here 
lately." 

“ Well, now, I tell you what it is, Cousin 
Annie Lee; you know as well as I do 
that I never was one to go round discussin' 
people. Mis' Julius Todd 's got jest as 
good a right as any to have whosoever 
she wants to visit her." 

95 


ZEBEDEE V 


Mrs. Aaron’s outburst of wrath was 
perhaps justifiable. “ Has anybody said 
she had n’t? ” she demanded. “ What in 
the name o’ goodness is the matter with 
the men? ” 

“ It ain’t the men,” said Mr. Willy, 
“ it ’s the ladies, that ’s who it is. I 
never did see any use in jumpin’ at con- 
clusions and bein’ uncharitable in yo’ 
talk.” 

Mrs. Aaron’s lips were set in their firm- 
est line, although she had known Mr. 
Willy many years, and might have had 
time to become accustomed to his method 
of procedure. “ Well,” she snapped, “ I 
reckon you know what you ’re drivin’ at. 
I don’t.” 

“ Yes ’m,” Mr. Willy went on, medita- 
tively, “ it cert’n’y does seem queer thet 
all the ladies goes and gets down on an- 
other lady like that. Now for my part I 
96 


ZEBEDEE V 


don’t see how you can deduct any harm 
from a lady wearin’ puffs and dressin’ in 
pink most o’ the time; and I think velvet 
shoes is real neat and stylish lookin’.” 

“ O-o-oh ! ” said Mrs. Aaron, “ that ’s 
the sort she is, is it? I reckon I begin to 
see daylight! I jest knew they ’s some ’n 
queer about that woman, from the way 
you men been goin’ on about her.” 

“ Now there it goes,” cried Mr. Willy, 
triumphantly. “ That ’s jest the way 
everybody talks ! I call it right down un- 
charitable, that ’s what I do. And whilst 
I hope I ’m as good a Methodist as any 
hereabouts, I ain’t that narrer-minded as 
to look down on any other sect. Mis’ Han- 
son Brown tol’ Cousin Clara-Belle White 
she thought it cert’n’y didn’t look right 
nor seemly for a deacon’s wife to be 
harborin’ a spiritualist, cousin or no 
cousin.” 


97 


ZEBEDEE V 


Mrs. Aaron Posey jumped. “ What ! ” 
she exclaimed. “ You don’t mean to tell 
me she ’s a spiritualist? A spiritualist ! ! ! ! 
Well, I never! Medium, I suppose?” 

“ Yes ’m; I reckon that ’s it.” 

“ Hum,” said Mrs. Posey. “ Hold any 
seeantses ? ” 

“ I reckon so,” Mr. Willy reluctantly 
admitted. “ They was a meetin’ o’ some 
sort there last night, and Miss Boker, she 
went into a tranct, and told how she saw 
the guidin’ sperits of one and another of 
the company, and said they wanted to 
communicate. Said they couldn’t jest 
make their messages clear unless ’n sil- 
ver passed betwixt Miss Boker and them 
as wanted the communications. It cer- 
tainly was interestin’.” Mr. Willy, be- 
coming warmed to his subject, had for- 
gotten to be wary. 

“ Oh, it was, was it? How ’d you come 
98 


ZEBEDEE V 

to know so much about it?” demanded 
Mrs. Aaron. 

Mr. Willy hurriedly arose, and set his 
glass on the railing. 

“ Well, good evenin’, I reckon I better 
be goin’,” he remarked, and fled. 

The next day> at dinner, Mrs. Posey 
said to her husband, “ I got to have the 
horse this afternoon. I got to go down 
to the store.” 

To Mrs. Aaron a horse was a horse, 
and a dog a dog; there were several of 
each species on the farm, and all had 
good, serviceable names given them by 
Mr. Posey; but Mrs. Posey unfailingly 
spoke of “ the horse ” or “ the dog,” or 
“ it.” She regarded horses solely as a 
means of locomotion, and dogs as neces- 
sary evils. She got more speed out of 
horses than anyone else could, and urged 
99 


ZEBEDEE V 


them on with duckings and admonitions, 
and jerks of the reins; and she fed the 
dogs, but forbade them the house. 

Mr. Posey rubbed his chin; his wife 
always recognized that as a sign of tem- 
porizing. “ Which horse? ” he asked. 

“ The sorrel,” said his wife, firmly. “ I 
haven’t got any time to waste dawdling 
on the road. I want a horse that can get 
me there.” 

“ We-e-ell, I been using Jenny this 
morning,” Mr. Posey began; but his wife 
cut him short. 

“ And I ’ll use it this afternoon,” she 
said. 

She met the doctor on the road; he 
drew up beside her, and she smiled at him 
graciously between her “ whoas ” to the 
sorrel. 

“ You ain’t been to see me sence Zora 
left,” she told him, slyly. 

ioo 


ZEBEDEE V 


“ Not because Miss Zora was not 
there/' the doctor gallantly declared. 

“ Well, you come up on a Saturday 
afternoon when I 'm done my bakin', and 
I 'll give you something worth coming 
for," Mrs. Posey told him. “ I want to 
talk to you about that child." 

It was evident enough that the subject 
would be interesting to the young man. 
“ I 'm afraid she 's not very well, not 
very strong," he said; but the sorrel 
refusing to endure Mrs. Aaron's methods 
of restraint any longer, the conversa- 
tion was ended almost where it was 
begun. 

Mrs. Posey went on to the store, and 
then to the house behind the nine kinds 
of fence. Flora was on the side porch 
in a rocking chair, teaching four of the 
small Slocums, boys and girls, how to 
darn their own stockings. 

IOI 


ZEBEDEE V 


“ Well, I am glad to see you,” she told 
Mrs. Aaron. “ Zora and I were talking 
this morning of driving out when we 
could get a horse. Zora ’s up to the min- 
ister’s; the Junior Aid’s sewin’ there 
to-day. Children, you can go now; and 
Chauncey, you better run across the fields 
and tell Zora Mis’ Posey ’s here, and not 
to stay for the refreshments.” 

When the children were well out of 
the way, Mrs. Posey went at once to the 
subject uppermost in her mind. 

“ What kind of a woman is visitin’ 
Mis’ Julius Todd?” she asked. 

Flora laughed a little, and did not stop 
rocking. Subtly, wordlessly, she made 
it plain that the fascinating stranger 
could not disturb her serenity. She looked 
at Mrs. Posey with one of those smiles 
which convey so much. “ Then you 
have n’t seen her ? ” 


102 


ZEBEDEE V 


“ No, and don’t want to,” Mrs. Posey 
replied. 

“ Well, you ought to,” said Flora. 
“ She ’s an object lesson in what not to 
wear. I wish you could V seen her in her 
pink dress alongside of Zora in the pink 
dress I made her. Pink is pink, I sup- 
pose; but land! there’s a lot of differ- 
ence somewheres. Zora ’s no need to take 
a back seat, I know that.” 

“ Mercy! She ain’t jest a young girl, 
is she?” Mrs. Aaron asked. “I heard 
she ’s a spiritualist.” 

Again Flora smiled. “ So they say. 
Me and mine ain’t concerned with her, 
nor likely to be. No, she ain’t jest a girl, 
not by a long shot; but some o’ the men 
seem to find her a good deal to look at.” 

“ Hum ! ” said Mrs. Posey, scornfully. 
“ Men ! What the men finds in some 
women is more ’n they could tell, them- 
103 


ZEBEDEE V 


selves. I thank my stars I got Mr. Posey 
well in hand. They ain’t goin’ to be any 
looking at spiritualists from Mr. Posey.” 

Flora laughed outright. “ Nor from 
Zebedee V.,” she declared, and turned the 
conversation to more interesting matters. 


104 


X 


The fascinating spiritualist was not to 
be so lightly dismissed, however. Her 
presence afforded welcome and unlimited 
matter for conversation and exchange of 
views to the good people of Pocahontas, 
and the meetings of the Ladies’ Aid and 
the Missionary Societies were largely at- 
tended for several weeks. A coolness 
sprang up between Mrs. Julius Todd and 
her neighbors, who one and all agreed to 
avoid Mrs. Todd’s house while Miss Mary 
Lou was a guest there. They could 
gather no news direct from its source, 
therefore, which was a great trial to Mrs. 
Aaron; but her grievance was not to be 
compared with that of many other 
women; for while Mr. Posey would say 

105 


ZEBEDEE V 


nothing whatever concerning the stranger, 
there were other husbands who openly 
declared to their wives that “ They ain’t 
any harm in that girl ; all you women are 
jest jealous of her clo’es.” Many a girl 
in the vicinity had a sore heart when the 
moonlight nights passed without the usual 
straw-rides for the many or buggy rides 
for two; the unmarried men were, one 
and all, rivals for Miss Boker’s favor, and 
refused to be diverted. For a time even 
Mr. Willy Posey fell under the spell, and 
lost interest in Mrs. Posey’s side porch; 
but Mrs. Aaron gathered enough news 
from other sources to be stern in dis- 
approval whenever he had to stop with 
mail. 

But that tide which comes in the affairs 
of men was bound in time to wash over 
Pocahontas, and one afternoon, when the 
spiritualist had been among them for a 
106 


ZEBEDEE V 


month, Mr. Willy hopped over the wheel 
of his Dayton with his usual cheery 
greeting. 

“ Why, good evenin’, Cousin Annie 
Lee ! ” he called out, as if he had been 
doing it every day. 

Mrs. Posey recognized his change of 
attitude at once, but thought it only proper 
to maintain for a time a certain dignity 
of reserve. “ Yes, very pleasant evenin’, 
thank you,” she said, in her most formal 
manner. 

But Mr. Willy ignored the coolness. 
He sat down on the top step and began 
fanning himself. “ Right warm for this 
late, ain’t it? ” he began, pleasantly. 

“ I had n’t noticed it,” said Mrs. Aaron, 
shortly. 

Mr. Willy began on another subject. 
“ Cousin Abel Higgins got back from 

Philadelphia this mornin’.” 

107 


ZEBEDEE V 


“ I did n’t know he had gone/’ said Mrs. 
Aaron. 

The conversation lapsed; Mr. Willy’s 
pleasant smile became a little strained, 
and Mrs. Posey looked out at the trees 
and fields with unwonted interest. Then 
Mr. Willy’s courage returned, and he re- 
marked cheerfully, “ That was a very 
fine sermon the minister preached last 
evenin’.” 

“ I did n’t get there,” said Mrs. Posey. 

But Mr. Willy was not to be snubbed. 

“ Well ’m, it cert’n’y was what you 
might call right to the point. Seems to 
me it ’s high time for something to be 
done about the way things been a-goin’ 
on in this community here lately.” 

Mrs. Posey meant to look unconcerned, 
but Mr. Willy thought he detected a quiver 
of curiosity on her lips. “ The minister’s 
text was, ‘ Of long time he had bewitched 
108 


ZEBEDEE V 


them with sorceries/ and he went on to 
talk about the danger of failin’ under the 
spell of sorceries and witchcrafts, and 
sech like. Said when you did you had a 
hard time a-gettin’ back into the way of 
grace, same as Simon had.” 

“ I ain’t doubtin’ the minister’s word,” 
said Mrs. Aaron. 

“ No, ma’am.” Mr. Willy rubbed his 
chin pensively. “ Seems to me it ’s about 
high time he ’s a-sayin’ it, too. He went 
on to remark he greatly feared they was 
many o’ the masculine members of his 
flock bein’ led astray into the wilderness 
of spiritualism, and he was glad to take 
that occasion to publicly give thanks that 
the ewe-lambs was n’t tempted so to stray. 
Yes ’m. He spoke real feelin’, and I must 
say I think it ’s about time. I never see 
anything like the way the young men here- 
abouts been took up with this spiritualist 
109 


ZEBEDEE V 


business — tests and seeantses, and sech ! 
I never see anything like it.” 

“ Well, if you never saw anything like 
it,” said Mrs. Aaron, “ you must 'a’ had 
a mighty big mote in your own eye ! ” 

Mr. Willy went on rather more hur- 
riedly : “ And it ain’t only the unmarried 
men that ’s took up with it, either. That ’s 
bad enough, goodness knows — pryin’ into 
the secrets o’ the past and the hidden path- 
ways o’ the future. But when it comes 
to married men and the fathers of eight 
a-doin’ of it — then, as I said before, it ’s 
about time some notice was took of it.” 

Mrs. Aaron Posey at last allowed her- 
self to be frankly interested. “ Eight ! ” 
she exclaimed. “ Eight!! You don’t 
mean to tell me, Cousin Willy, that — ” 
The postman’s eyes met hers in full 
understanding. “ Yes ’m,” he said. “ It ’s 
him I’m talkin’ about.” 


no 


ZEBEDEE V 


Mrs. Posey edged her chair forward. 
“ You don’t mean to tell me that Zebedee 
V. Slocum — ? ” 

Mr. Willy shook his head slowly and 
sadly. “ I ’m afraid it ’s a fact/’ he 
admitted. 

“ Well,” said Mrs. Aaron, “ I reckon 
them that ’s born fools stays fools. But 
I did think Flora Slocum had him better 
in hand.” 

The two rocked in silence for a minute 
or so, and then Mrs. Posey said, in the 
shocked tone that she reserved for cer- 
tain subjects, “ I ’d jest like to know 
what idea he ’s got a hold of now — goin’ 
to a spiritualist at his time o’ life.” 

Mr. Willy looked wise and said noth- 
ing, but continued to rock. Mrs. Aaron 
peered at him over her glasses. “ I don’t 
suppose you happen to know what that 
man ’s up to, do you, Cousin Willy? ” 
hi 


ZEBEDEE V 


“ Well ’m,” replied Mr. Willy, “ I never 
was one o' the kind to go inquirin’ into 
my neighbors’ affairs, and that you know 
right well. But when a thing ’s told to 
me outright I may be said to have some 
idea of it.” 

Mrs. Aaron’s lips tightened; such a 
remark was almost beyond feminine en- 
durance. Mr. Willy saw the danger sig- 
nal, perhaps with some trepidation, and 
hurried on: 

“ I was walkin’ along the road past Mis’ 
Julius Todd’s the other — ” 

“ Hum ! ” sniffed Mrs. Aaron. 

“ — night, when I noticed a light in 
the parlor winder. The curtains was all 
down, and they had the lamp a-settin’ 
near the winder so ’s they was n’t any 
shadders; but I jest says to myself, says 
I, ‘ Now, maybe they ’s somebody in 
there I know, and ef I wait here maybe 
1 12 


ZEBEDEE V 


I ’ll have company home.’ So I waited, 
and it was n’t more ’n a little while when 
I felt somebody or something touch me 
on the shoulder. I was that startled, as 
you might say, that I come mighty nigh 
jumpin’ out o’ my skin; I surely did think 
for a little minute it was one o’ them 
sperits excaped. Yes’m; and when I 
see who it was sure enough I says, ‘ Laws, 
Z. V., what you doin’ here? ’ and he only 
whispered back, ‘ Hush-sh-sh-sh ! Come 
along a little.’ So we walked on down 
the road, dost to the bushes. Zebedee V. 
told me he ’d been consultin’ Miss Mary 
Lou about a message he ’d received from 
his guardian sperit the last time he was 
there. Yes ’m. I ast him how he come 
to crawl up on me that a way, scarin’ me 
most out of my senses; and he said he 
considered he might be settin’ a bad ex- 
ample to the youth o’ Pocahontas ef ’t was 

113 


ZEBEDEE V 


known he ’d been inquirin’ into the future 
by means o’ Miss Boker, and he snooped 
out the back way for that reason. Said 
o’ course it did n’t make any difference 
for him to be a-doin’ it, for he was too 
old and sensible, and his character was 
too much formed already for him to take 
any harm by it.” 

“ Character ! ” said Mrs. Aaron, dis- 
dainfully. “ I reckon Flora Slocum ’d 
character him if she knew of his goin’s 
on.” 

“ Yes ’m,” admitted Mr. Willy, “ I 
reckon it ’s merciful for him that she 
don’t. He seemed to think that a way, 
too. Said of course his wife did n’t know 
about his goin’ there, and he ’d jest as 
soon she did n’t ; not that there was any 
harm in it, but it was jest on a little 
matter o’ business, and women had n’t 
oughter be bothered with sech like de- 
114 


ZEBEDEE V 

tails, when they ’s a man at the head o’ 
the family.” 

“ Business ! ” scoffed Mrs. Aaron. 
“ Fine business, I ’d call it.” 

a Yes ’m, it was business, too!” pro- 
tested Mr. Willy. “ I know, ’cause he 
told me. He went on a-holdin’ my arm 
and tellin’ me how he ’d gone there first 
because he wanted to see jest how much 
communin’ with the powers o’ darkness 
there might be in them seeantses, so ’s 
he could know for himself and thereby 
warn the youth o’ Pocahontas. Said you 
could n’t expect anybody in this world to 
foller the good example of a person who 
was jest good because they did n’t know 
about the bad side, so he was a-goin’ to 
find out, and then keep on settin’ the 
good example. Oh, Z. V. has real noble 
ideas, Cousin Annie Lee! 

“ So in he went, and Miss Boker went 

115 


ZEBEDEE V 


into a tranct right off, and said she had 
at last found one in Pocahontas who was 
a good subject, and the sperits was 
a-tellin’ her all sorts of things about him 
— all talkin’ at once like. Zebedee V. 
says he felt jest like his spine was stickin’ 
out through his back, and when he got 
home again Flora ast him what made 
his hair so fluffity, and standin’ every 
which-a-ways. 

“ I ast him what Miss Boker told him, 
and he said they was one sperit seemed to 
want to talk more ’n the others, and Miss 
Boker said that was his guardian sperit, 
and it had to communicate that he was on 
the road to fortune, but that the road 
branched and he must be sure and take 
the right branch. Zebedee V. said he 
always had thought he was meant to be 
a person o’ wealth and influence, and the 
sperit’s sayin’ so right off convinced him 
116 


ZEBEDEE V 


of its sincerity. Said he ast Miss Boker 
to ast the sperit which was the right road, 
and it kept a-sayin' — ‘ The road through 
the wheat, the road through the wheat/ 
And that 's all they could get out of it 
that night.” 

“ There ain't any road through wheat 
around here,” scoffed Mrs. Aaron. “ I 
should think that alone would 'a' con- 
vinced him it was foolishness.” 

“ No 'm,” said Mr. Willy, “ it jest 
puzzled him, so 's he had to go again ! 
Next time it told him again the road to 
wealth lay through wheat, through wheat, 
and he 's more puzzled than ever. Zebe- 
dee V. says his guardian sperit must 'a’ 
been speakin' to him unbeknownst all his 
life, for Miss Boker went on to repeat for 
it that Zebedee V. was surely born for 
wealth easy come by ! And he said he got 
to thinkin' it over, and puttin' two and 
ii 7 


ZEBEDEE V 


two together like, and he plainly saw they 
was n’t but one way to come easy by 
wealth — exceptin’ the ways he ’d already 
tried — and that was by speculation, and 
sence the sperit insisted on a road through 
wheat, it must be meanin’ a speculation 
in wheat. Once the idea come to him it 
all seemed plain as day. Yes ’m. Zebe- 
dee V. said he jest had to sit down and 
ponder on what a downright shame it 
was he had n’t a-thought of it himself, 
and gone into the market in time to give 
his business genius a chanct to get a part 
o’ what John D. Rockefeller and Pier- 
point Morgan and the rest of ’em had 
took unto themselves already. Said he 
hoped it was n’t too late, and he was n’t 
goin’ to waste any time about it now. 
Said it give him the shivers to think o’ 
what he might ’a’ missed ef Miss Mary 
Lou Boker had n’t a-come to Pocahontas, 
118 


ZEBEDEE V 


and helped his guardian sperit to com- 
municate with him. Zebedee V. said he ’s 
so downright grateful to Miss Mary Lou 
that he had to go the very next night and 
tell her so. Yes ’m.” 

Mrs. Posey’s face wore its most shocked 
expression, and she was sitting very 
straight in her chair, forgetting to rock. 
“ Well, I never,” she said. “ Ef that 
don’t beat all ! First to go into spiritual- 
ism, and then into speculation!! I don’t 
know which is worse. And to talk about 
settin’ an example ! The hypocrite ! 
That ’s what he is ! He ’s a hypocrite ! ” 

Mr. Willy was rocking gently, and 
smiling, and Mrs. Aaron continued: 
“ What ’s he got to speculate with, I ’d 
like to know ? ” 

“ Yes ’m,” replied the letter-carrier, 
“ that ’s what puzzled him, first off. He 
said he jest had to cudgel his brains to 
119 


ZEBEDEE V 


find a way to get hold o’ some money. 
Says it cert'n'y did seem to him that one 
o’ the most mysterious movings o’ Provi- 
dence was that the very time you wanted 
money the most was the time you found 
it the hardest to get! Then he jest hap- 
pened to remember that his guardian 
sperit seemed to know about as much as 
he did, and maybe it 'd have an idea ; so 
he up and went to see Miss Boker again. 
Sure enough, the guardian sperit told 
him to ‘ paint, paint/ and that was all it 
would say. Says he thought so hard the 
next day he most wore himself all out, 
and found himself jest a-wanderin' here 
and there, tell suddenly he found himself 
in front of his first wife's Aunt Lucy's 
house. Zebedee V. says when he looked 
up at it, it jest made him feel sick to think 
how near he come to losin’ that chance. 

“ That house had n't been painted for 
120 


ZEBEDEE V 


goodness knows how long, and his first 
wife’s Aunt Lucy was always right easy 
to persuade, when you did n’t do it too 
often. So in he went, and when he come 
out the old lady had advanced him a hun- 
dred dollars, and he was to have the 
house painted before winter come on, and 
after the flies left. That gave him time 
enough to look around — for he said of 
course he had n’t any idea o’ doin’ the 
work himself, a-riskin’ his life and limb 
on a scaffoldin’ or a ladder, with a wife 
and eight dependin’ on him. He thought 
he ’d jest use the hundred dollars to buy 
margins, and when he had made his 
wealth he could easy pay a man, yes, or 
ten men, to do the paintin’ in time.” 

“ Margins ! ” exclaimed Mrs. Posey. 
“ What ’s margins ? I thought he was 
goin’ to speculate in wheat ! ” 

Mr. Willy rubbed his ear. “ Yes ’m, 
121 


ZEBEDEE V 


he is. I reckon that ’s jest another name 
for it. Zebedee V. says all people buys, 
when they speculate in wheat, is margins.” 

“ Hum,” said Mrs. Aaron. “ I don’t 
think much o’ your margins, myself. But 
Zebedee V. Slocum could n’t be expected 
to show any common sense.” 

“ Well,” said Mr. Willy, unfailing in de- 
fense of his friend, “ maybe he couldn’t; 
but he shows his gratitude to them that 
helps him. Said when he got a holt o’ the 
money, the next thing was to get a holt 
of a broker ; that ’s a man what tells you 
what to bet on — I mean, what to buy. 
He said he would ’a’ gone down to Bal- 
t’mer and reviewed the situation himself, 
but Flora does miss him so whenever he ’s 
out of her sight for long. So he went to 
see Miss Mary Lou again.” 

“ Anything for an excuse, I suppose,” 
said Mrs. Aaron. 


122 


ZEBEDEE V 


“ I ain’t said so,” said Mr. Willy, slyly. 
“ Anyways, he told Miss Boker ef she 
would get him the name and address of 
a broker in Balt’mer, he ’d go halves with 
her on his profits. Said he wanted to 
show his gratitude to her for helpin’ him 
to know and appreciate his guardian 
sperit. And she did; she told him jest 
the very man to send to, and now he ’s 
waitin’ to see what comes of it — ex- 
pectin’ a letter from the broker enclosin’ 
his wealth, most any day.” 

Mrs. Aaron accompanied Mr. Willy 
Posey to the door. “ Yes,” she said, “ I 
reckon a small-sized letter can enclose all 
the wealth he ’ll get out of it.” 


123 


XI 


Although Mrs. Posey was not aware 
of it, the months during which Mr. Slo- 
cum was making the acquaintance of his 
guardian spirit through the medium of 
Miss Mary Lou Boker were months of 
wild excitement in what Mr. Slocum him- 
self would have called “ the marts of 
trade.” Stocks rose and fell in ways 
startling and unexpected to those who 
were not their manipulators, and some- 
times to those who were; an Asiatic war 
cloud which was hovering over the hori- 
zon burst suddenly, and in the hurricane 
which followed, such staples as corn and 
wheat went soaring to altitudes seldom 
reached before. Miss Boker’s friend was 
a young gentleman just entering upon the 
124 


ZEBEDEE V 


brokerage business ; he was endowed with 
that beginners’ luck so often heard of and 
so seldom met, and when Mr. Slocum’s 
letter reached him — 

But the postman told the news to Mrs. 
Aaron, one chilly afternoon in late. Sep- 
tember, after a week of rain, when he 
found her in the sitting-room, “ looking 
over ” Mr. Posey’s socks. 

“ Good evenin’, Cousin Annie Lee,” he 
called out cheerily, as he opened the door. 
Mrs. Posey nodded pleasantly, and he 
made himself comfortable in his favorite 
rocker, rubbing his hands one over the 
other to warm them. 

“ Seems right quiet like around here 
now, don’t it? ” 

Mrs. Aaron spread out the fingers of 
her left hand inside a sock, and finding 
no holes therein drew it off wrong side 

125 


ZEBEDEE V 


out. Mr. Willy seemed to expect an an- 
swer, so she peered at him questioningly 
over her spectacles. 

He continued : “ I reckon things ’ll 

quiet down right smart, now that Miss 
Mary Lou Boker ’s gone home.” 

“ Gone home ! ” exclaimed Mrs. Posey. 
“You don’t say! Why, when did she 
go? 

“ Yesterday mornin’, first train down,” 
Mr. Willy replied. “ She went in a kind 
of a hurry at the last,” he added, and 
smiled. 

“High time!” sniffed Mrs. Aaron. 

Mr. Willy chuckled. “ You never said 
a truer word,” he agreed. “ Ef she 
had n’t a-went when she did, I reckon 
she ’d ’a’ had undesired comp’ny. I jest 
tell you what it is, Cousin Annie Lee, it 
ain’t always wise for the father of eight 
to be seekin’ tests and sech like; it ain’t 
126 


ZEBEDEE V 


every day things turn out as fortunate as 
they did this time.” 

Mrs. Posey was startled. “ For good- 
ness’ sake, Cousin Willy, you don’t mean 
to tell me that fool of a man had any idea 
of runnin’ off with — ” 

“ Oh, no,” said Mr. Willy, hurriedly, 
“ Zebedee V. ain’t that kind of a man at 
all ! And after a man ’s had three wives 
— well ! Oh, no, it was n’t him that was 
a-goin’ with her.” He laughed and 
slapped his knee. “ No, ma’am ! I tell 
you how it was. You remember how Zeb- 
edee V. was expectin’ of a letter from 
Miss Mary Lou’s friend the broker? 
Well, that was more ’n a month ago, that 
was, and he ’s been sneakin’ in to the 
post-office every time he can, and lay- 
waying me, too, to ask if they was n’t ary 
letter for him. First he used to go to 
Miss Mary Lou’s real often, to try to find 
127 


ZEBEDEE V 


out from his guardian sperit what w T as 
happenin’ to his money; but Miss Mary 
Lou, she could n’t seem to get the guardian 
sperit to communicate very often, and 
finally, Zebedee V. begun to feel kinder 
cool towards her. Well ’m, day before 
yest’d’y he stopped me every time he see 
me a-goin’ by, and he cert’n’y was lookin’ 
real anxious and bad. I cert’n’y did feel 
right sorry for him — Said his first 
wife’s Aunt Lucy was a-clamorin’ to have 
her house painted, and he ’d jest about 
run out of excuses, and did n’t know what 
he was goin’ to do. Said he could n’t see 
any way out of it, exceptin’ death or the 
promised wealth, and Aunt Lucy seemed 
real hearty, and not likely to pass away. 

“ I cert’n’y was sorry for him. The 
last thing in the evenin’ he come to the 
store, and said he reckoned he ’d have one 
more try at his guardian sperit that night. 

128 


ZEBEDEE V 


Well ’m, you know we all don’t distribute 
that seven-forty mail tell mornin’; but I 
had him on my mind so, and I felt so bad 
for him, that when it come in an’ I found 
a letter in it for Zebedee V. Slocum, I 
jest could n’t help takin’ it to him. I took 
it mighty nigh on a run, too, not knowin’ 
what I soon found out. I jest couldn’t 
help it. It did seem like it would be un- 
christian to leave him another night with- 
out his wealth. When I got there, Gladys 
Virginia come to the door, and I, never 
thinkin’ he might n’t be home, says I — 
‘Where’s yo’ pa, honey? I got a letter 
for him,’ says I. And then Mis’ Slocum, 
she come out; and Mis’ Slocum cert’n’y 
has got queer eyes. Anyways, I ’s so 
startled I dropped the letter before I could 
get it into my pocket, I ’s jest that dum- 
foundered. I got a splinter under my nail 
a-pickin’ it up, too. Mis’ Slocum, she 
129 


ZEBEDEE V 


says — 'What’s that you said?’ and I 
says, ‘ Oh, nothin’, nothin’ at all.’ * Yes 
you did,’ says she, ‘ you let me see that 
letter. My husband don’t have any secrets 
from me, Willy Posey,’ she said. I says 
I had to deliver that letter to him in per- 
son, and then Mis’ Slocum said — she 
said — oh well, anyways, I thought maybe 
it would be more peaceful like to give it 
to her, which I did, as graceful as I could ; 
and then I went off in a hurry to warn 
Zebedee V. 

“ I thought it more ’n likely I ’d find 
him at Miss Boker’s a-communin’ with his 
guardian sperit, and sure enough they was 
a light in the parlor when I got there. At 
first Mis’ Julius Todd would n’t let me in; 
but I says to her, I says — ‘ I jest tell you 
what it is, Mis’ Todd, ef you don’t let me 
in to where Zebedee V. Slocum is, they ’ll 
be trouble in this neighborhood before 
130 


ZEBEDEE V 


long! ’ Mis’ Todd said she would n’t dast 
disturb Miss Mary Lou whilst she was in 
a tranct, but ef I chose to stand by the 
consequences I could. 

“ By that time I heard someone a-comin’ 
up the steps, and I jest had a presentiment 
who it was; so I reckoned I better make 
up my mind right quick to stand by them 
consequences, which I did. I opened the 
parlor door real easy like, and Miss Mary 
Lou was a-lyin’ on the lounge with a 
hankcher over her face, talkin’ in low 
tones, and Zebedee V. was a-kneelin’ down 
in front o’ the hair-cloth rocker Mis’ Julius 
Todd’s mother died in, a-wringin’ his 
hands, but lookin’ real pleased like. He 
was a-facin’ the door, and when he see 
me he waved his hands at me to go back; 
and then I saw his eyes sort o’ pop. Miss 
Mary Lou — or the sperit — was a-sayin’, 
‘Your guardian sperit says to have no 

131 


ZEBEDEE V 


fear. Trust in the angel heaven has pro- 
vided for yo’ guidance. Hearken to it as 
one havin’ the voice of authority. It will 
tell you how to care for your wealth, for 
the wealth which is even now nigh at 
hand. Trust in — ’ 

“ That ’s all she got out, for Mis’ Slo- 
cum, right behind me in the door said, in 
a awful loud tone of voice, ‘Yes, I reckon 
she will ! I reckon she ’ll tell him more 
than that! You get up off ’n your knees, 
Zebedee V. Slocum ! I ’m glad to see you 
had the grace to let it be to a hair-cloth 
rocker, instead of to that decked-out crea- 
ture there.’ Miss Boker swung round and 
was a-sittin’ on the sofa in a minute after 
she ’s interrupted ; she cert’n’y did come 
out o’ that tranct quicker ’n usual. Mis’ 
Slocum went up to her and said, ‘ Mr. 
Slocum and I are real grateful to you for 
givin’ sech good advice,’ she said. And 
132 


ZEBEDEE V 


then she waves the letter at Zebedee V. 
4 What part and parcel did that woman 
have in this ? 9 she asked him ; and he says, 
‘ None, my love, none whatever. It was 
by the directions of my guardian spent/ 
Mis’ Slocum said, knockin’ on the letter 
and glarin’, ‘ How did you get hold of 
any money for this ? ’ and Zebedee V. 
says, real dignifiedly, ‘ It was for Aunt 
Lucy’s paint, my love.’ Mis’ Slocum ast 
him how much it was, and he told her a 
hund’ed dollars, and then Miss Slocum 
says, ‘ Do you mean to tell me that you 
made seventeen hundred dollars out o’ one 
hundred?’ Zebedee V. says, real scairt 
like, ‘ Seventeen hundred? ’ and she says, 
‘ That ’s what this letter says ; they ’s a 
check in it for seventeen hundred dollars ! ” 
Mr. Willy paused dramatically. Mrs. 
Aaron gasped, “ Well, I never! ” 

“ Yes ’m,” continued Mr. Willy, smil- 
133 


ZEBEDEE V 


in g, “ It was the truth she was tellin\ 
That ’s jest what it was! Zebedee V. set 
down in the rocker all of a heap like, and 
begun to fan hi’self with his hat; and 
Miss Boker, she begun to cry into her 
han’kcher. Yes ’m. It was jest like a 
play. I felt kinder stirred up like, myself ! 
Mis’ Slocum, she looked from one to the 
other of ’em, and then she said to Miss 
Boker, she said, ‘ I reckon this here friend 
of yours must be wantin’ to see you right 
bad, don’t you ? Ef I was you I ’d go 
down to Balt’mer on that first train to- 
morrer ! Ef you don’t, maybe you ’d 
ruther go along with me on the ten-thirty ! 
We are both much obliged to you for your 
good advice.’ 

“ And then she took a holt o’ Zebedee 
V. ‘ Here,’ she says, 4 you hearken to the 
voice of authority, and come along home 
with the angel heaven has provided for 
i34 


ZEBEDEE V 


your guidance. She ’ll tell you how to 
care for your wealth. They ain't any 
doubt about that. I reckon she 's about 
all the guardian sperit you 'll need here- 
after,' says she; and her and Zebedee V. 
up and walks out. I thought maybe I 
could n't do much good by stayin', either, 
so I come too. Yes 'm." 

“ Well I never! " said Mrs. Aaron. 


i35 


XII 


It was a vast amount of money to have 
descended upon an inhabitant of Pocahon- 
tas. Whether Mr. Willy spread the news, 
or whether it traveled in one of those mys- 
terious wireless methods common to every 
countryside, it was only a very few days 
before all Pocahontas was fairly hum- 
ming with it, and men drove in from the 
hills and from beyond the Susquehanna, 
just to get the precise facts. Mr. Slocum 
had been a hero before, from time to time ; 
but now, while there still clung to him 
something of heroism, he had jumped 
into another and even more enviable class ; 
he was a financier. People were shocked 
at the way he had made his money; but 
it is easy to be shocked at high finance 
136 


ZEBEDEE V 


without in the least disliking or disdaining 
the person using its methods. Then, to 
have made sixteen hundred dollars in spec- 
ulation argued the possibility of making 
sixteen thousand, or sixty thousand, for 
that matter. Indeed, Zebedee V. was 
spoken of in the same breath with Mr. 
Carnegie and Mr. Morgan; nothing 
seemed beyond his powers. 

That Mrs. Zebedee V. had gone off to 
Belair the morning of the fair spiritual- 
ist’s departure and deposited the check 
for seventeen hundred dollars in the bank 
was a fact known only in the Slocum 
family, until Flora divulged it to Mrs. 
Aaron. For a few days Zebedee V., 
crushed by the ultimate developments, 
kept at home; but when he realized that 
the men knew only of his making the 
money, that Mr. Willy, the sole observer 
of the grand climax, had disclosed nothing 
137 


ZEBEDEE V, 


of his crony’s humiliation, that his re- 
maining at home was supposed to be only 
the seclusion of the modesty that accom- 
panies true greatness, then Zebedee V. 
went forth. 

The winter before had witnessed the 
defeat of the Pocahontas Construction 
Company, and there had been other win- 
ters which he preferred to forget; but 
ah, how different was this one! He was 
a rich man, — a man whose voice was 
listened to with new respect; there might 
be Flora at home, but abroad he was a 
personage. 

It never took Flora long to make her 
plans; the day after her trip to Belair 
she borrowed a horse from Mrs. Sissy 
Slocum, and drove out to call on Mrs. 
Aaron. 

“ Yes, it ’s all the truth,” she said, when 
138 


ZEBEDEE V 


they were comfortably rocking in Mrs. 
Posey’s parlor. “ I never suspicioned 
he ’s up to anything, till just a day or so 
before I got a hold of that letter with the 
check in it; and as things have turned 
out, I reckon it ’s jest as well I did n’t. 
They was n’t any real harm done ; and 
maybe he even kept some of the young 
fellers away from that woman and so 
sent ’em back to their sweethearts. Which 
reminds me o’ what I come to talk about. 
Have you seen the doctor lately ? ” 

“ He brought Zora up here one after- 
noon last week,” said Mrs. Aaron. 
“ Why?” 

“ Um-hum. That ’s jest it,” Flora said. 
“ It ’s Miss Zora this and Miss Zora that, 
and take Miss Zora here and take Miss 
Zora there, till the child ’s getting her 
head turned.” 

“ She ’s eighteen,” Mrs. Aaron stated. 
i39 


ZEBEDEE V 


“ And ain’t had a mite o’ girlhood,” the 
stepmother returned. “ I ain’t got a bit 
of objection to the doctor; in fact, I’d 
rather Zora ’d have him than anybody else 
around here; but land, that pore little 
thing ! Why, she ’s been a-working and 
a-working ever since she could toddle; I 
ain’t going to have her get married yet 
a while, not if I can help it.” 

Mrs. Aaron took off her spectacles and 
smiled; Flora had such admirable, con- 
sistent common sense! “ What to do?” 
she asked. 

“ Well, there ’s that money,” said Flora. 

They looked at each other for a minute 
or two; then Flora went on, “ I don’t 
know a soul in the East here; I come to 
you to help me. I want to send the girl 
to Balt’mer or Washington, for the win- 
ter, to let her get a rest, and have a good 
time, and maybe pick up a little schooling 
140 


ZEBEDEE V 


or playing the pianner or something. 
And I don’t know a soul in either place.” 

“Land, she can’t very well go to school 
after she ’s eighteen,” said Mrs. Posey. 

“ Why not? ” demanded Flora. “ Girls 
go to college. Zora don’t know enough 
for that ; but I been teaching her all sum- 
mer and spring, and she ’s picked up 
faster ’n anybody I ever taught. I want 
her to go to school, or somewhere. I cer- 
tainly don’t want her to get married yet.” 

“ Me neither,” Mrs. Posey agreed. 

The result of their afternoon consulta- 
tion was that a distant Slocum cousin who 
lived in Baltimore was remembered and 
was written to; and a week or two later 
saw the half-willing Zora in the cousin’s 
house, with the prospect of a winter of 
music lessons and good times. Mr. Slo- 
cum hated the scheme, and violently pro- 
tested against it, until at last Zora, the 
141 


ZEBEDEE V 


most faithful and devoted of daughters, 
declared that she would stay at home for- 
ever rather than take any of poor Pa’s 
money to spend on her worthless self. 
But common sense and Flora prevailed; 
Zebedee V. might sulk, but Zora should 
have her good time. 

The doctor declared the scheme admir- 
able ; lovemaking had not progressed very 
far between the two, for Zebedora was 
only a child in heart and manner. The 
doctor was beginning pretty well to know 
his own mind; but he was a man, an ar- 
dent admirer of Mrs. Aaron and Mrs. 
Zebedee V., and heartily in favor of any- 
thing they might agree upon. So Zora 
went to Baltimore, and even to New York. 

There was only one person who was 
secretly disquiet during that pleasant 
winter. None knew better than Zebedee 
V. that things are not always what they 
142 


ZEBEDEE V 


seem. At the store he was the bold, in- 
genious, successful financier and man of 
business; at home, Flora’s husband and 
man-of-all-work. He knew that he was, 
made to be a leader of men, not servant 
to the whims, however admirable, of a 
woman. He knew that he was meant to 
direct work, not to do it; he knew that 
the germs of greatness were imbedded in 
his nature; he knew that the misplaced 
energy of his wife was thwarting his true 
development. He made the most of his 
position at the store ; but at home he was 
a different creature. In one way, the 
winter seemed to pass quickly, for the 
hours spent in other men’s company were 
all too short and fleeting; but in another 
— how the days dragged, a year’s length 
each! Even the children were beginning 
to lose something of their admiring won- 
der for him; and' Zora, the daughter of 
i43 


ZEBEDEE V 


his heart, was spending his fortune in 
wasteful idleness in the city! Her letters 
gave him things to boast about at the 
store; but all the while he remembered 
that it was his money she was spending, 
while the very sight of it was denied him. 

So the winter wore away; and one 
bright, warm morning in April he came 
out of his well-ordered kitchen, glanced 
swiftly over his shoulder at the bustling, 
busy form of his wife, and stood irreso- 
lutely on his side porch. There was work 
to be done and plenty of it ; Flora always 
saw to that. But work had never held 
a strong appeal for Mr. Slocum, and to- 
day, of all days, it loomed before him so 
uninvitingly as to be almost impossible. 
The call of the season was all about him, 
and the very atmosphere seemed weighted 
with something akin to his own lassitude. 
The sun was already warming the soft 
144 


ZEBEDEE V 


air, fragrant with the scent of blossoms 
and the sweet brown earth. Across the 
sky white puffs of cloud were floating, 
their cool shadows passing over the fields 
below. Pigeons were cooing among the 
eaves of the barn, and two bluebirds were 
calling from among the blossoms of a 
near -by cherry. A red-crested woodpecker, 
in his courting finery, flew down and 
alighted on the trunk of a big walnut tree. 

Mr. Slocum had felt spring’s appeal in 
years gone by; but now, ah! how much 
more poignantly ! In other times, on such 
a day as this, he used to spend long rest- 
ful hours on his side porch, with his feet 
on the railing, his pipe in his mouth, and 
peace in his heart; or perhaps he would 
stroll around his neighbors’ fields to advise 
them in their planting, or to the store to 
watch the mail being distributed. But this 
year things were different. 

145 


ZEBEDEE V 


Now Zebedee V. no longer smoked, no 
longer dallied in the friendly store, no 
longer stayed out with his friends in the 
cool of the evening, no longer lounged in 
idle comfort on his side porch. The days 
spent in healthful, manly exercise seemed 
very long, the nights of rest only too short. 

With the coming of spring and the 
yearning pain of the first warm days he 
had several times tried to escape; but his 
wife’s parrot hung in the sunshine on the 
side porch, just above the spot where his 
feet used to rest on the railing; and it 
screeched whenever anyone entered or 
passed out of the front gate. So to-day 
he stood in irresolute longing only a min- 
ute, then went almost swiftly to his work 
back of the barn, and wearily lifted the 
emblem of labor. The very heaviness of 
his joints made it easier to press in the 
spade than to lift it. 

146 


ZEBEDEE V 


But spring is full of hope, and with an 
undefined feeling that there must be an 
end somewhere, he worked his way around 
the corner of the barn. The earth he 
turned over lay in irregular masses ; here 
and there, where the spade made a cut 
through closely packed soil, a shining sur- 
face was upturned, reflecting iridescent 
rainbow tints. In one of his not infre- 
quent pauses for rest, Mr. Slocum’s eyes 
were attracted towards such a lump of 
earth, not alone by its prismatic hues, but 
by something more familiar, friendly — 
a fat, wriggling angle-worm, squirming 
its way out of the clod. He stooped over 
it, and chopped it with his spade; its 
wiggles increased; it fattened, then elon- 
gated. He raised himself warily, and 
looked across the fields to where a blur of 
emerald indicated the line of willows that 
bordered the brook; his memory recalled 
147 


ZEBEDEE V 


the trickle and murmur of the water, the 
restful satisfaction of fishing, the flavor 
of crisply fried gudgeon for breakfast. 
He peeped irresolutely around the corner 
of the barn towards the house ; then, with 
another glance at the sky and the willows, 
he set his spade firmly upright in the earth, 
and as firmly walked out of his yard 
to the road. The parrot saw him and 
screeched; but Mr. Slocum’s step did not 
falter. He walked on quickly towards the 
store. 

But on that lovely day spring’s appeal 
was making itself felt not only by Mr. 
Slocum. In the household of Mrs. 
“ Sissy ” Slocum the beauty of the season 
and its mildness had been commented upon 
at the breakfast table; and at noon the 
young schoolteacher who boarded there 
came home with a handful of buttercups 
148 


ZEBEDEE V 


and bluets — demure “ Quaker ladies ” — 
and a suggestion which was none the less 
pleasing because of its unusualness. So 
it happened that early in the afternoon a 
Dayton wagon drove into Mrs. Aaron 
Posey’s yard, and her sister, Mrs. Slocum, 
descended. Mrs. Posey, with a dish-towel 
in her hand, came to the door to meet 
her. 

“ What ’s the matter ? ” she exclaimed, 
explosively. 

“ Sissy ” looked up in mild astonish- 
ment. “ Matter ? ” she repeated. 

“Yes, matter! What’s the matter? 
What ’s happened ? Anybody been took ? ” 

“ Land, no ! ” Mrs. Slocum reassured 
her. “ Nothin ’s the matter. We come 
to take you on a picnic.” 

The alarm on Mrs. Posey’s face deep- 
ened. She looked towards the two women 
still seated in the Dayton — her youngest 
149 


ZEBEDEE V 


sister, Miss Julia Higgins, and the pretty 
schoolteacher. Miss Higgins called out, 
divining Mrs. Posey’s suspicions — “ It ’s 
all right, sister! We jest thought maybe 
you ’d like to come on a picnic with us.” 

Mrs. Posey’s expression changed; she 
began to look scandalized. “ I never heard 
of such a thing,” she said. “ This ain’t 
Fourth o’ July.” 

The schoolteacher leaned out and said, 
sweetly, “ I had to go out to get some 
specimens, Mrs. Posey, and we all thought 
we ’d go on a little picnic, the day ’s so 
warm.” 

Mrs. Posey considered for several mo- 
ments; then she said, firmly, definitely, 
finally, “ It ’s Saturday.” 

For a moment it seemed as if that fact 
would of necessity kill the plans for 
the picnic; but Mrs. Slocum remarked, 
casually, 

150 


ZEBEDEE V 


“ I always get through my work in the 
mornin’s, Saturday or no Saturday.” 

“ Well,” said Mrs. Posey, from the 
doorway, with tossing head, “ I reckon 
nobody gets through their work any 
quicker ’n I do! Mr. Posey ’s drove over 
to Joppa with the calf. Want me to bring 
along anything to eat ? ” 

“We got a plenty,” replied Mrs. Slocum, 
and went back to her place in the Dayton. 


•XIII 


It was not long before Mrs. Posey came 
out with a small wooden grape-basket in 
her hand. She locked the door and put 
the key on the window-sill, closing the 
shutters afterwards. “ I never put my 
key under the door-mat, where everybody 
knows where to look for it,” she said. 
“ Here ’s some of my beat biscuit; I 
thought maybe they ’d go real good.” 

“ So they will,” the schoolteacher tact- 
fully declared. “ I ’m crazy about your 
beaten biscuit, Mrs. Posey.” 

“ Thanks,” replied Mrs. Aaron, but was 
evidently still to be appeased. “ How come 
you got up a picnic this time o’ year, please 
tell me? ” 

Miss Higgins entered the breach. 

152 


ZEBEDEE V 


“ Where d’ you reckon is the best place 
for specimens, sister ?” she tactfully 
asked, as they drove off. 

Mrs. Aaron was fond of conversation, 
but she knew when to remain silent. The 
schoolteacher explained. “ Yes, specimens 
of spring flowers and leaves; I want to 
get a craw-fish, too, if I can. I need them 
for school.” 

“ For gracious sakes ! ” exclaimed Mrs. 
Aaron, impatiently, “ ef I had a child, 
which maybe it ’s a blessin’ I have n’t, I 
reckon I ’d be satisfied ef it got all the 
learnin ’s to be had out of books, without 
foolin’ over weeds and reptiles.” 

Mrs. Slocum spoke quickly, with peace- 
ful intent. “ I thought maybe down under 
the high culvert might be a good place 
to go.” 

“ Yes, and ef a train went over, the 
horse might get loose and run away,” said 
153 


ZEBEDEE V 


Mrs. Posey. “ I ’d go to a quieter place, 
myself, since you ’re bound to tempt Prov- 
idence by picnicking at this season of the 
year. Why don’t you go down by ‘ Crick ’ 
Tom Wilkins’s? ” 

“ That ’s jest the very spot,” decided 
Miss Higgins ; and, indeed, “ Crick ” 
Tom’s creek proved an ideal place for 
specimens and the picnic. The ladies 
found shade and soft grass, and many 
varieties of leaves and flowers; the after- 
noon passed pleasantly, and they were talk- 
ing of going home, when the teacher re- 
membered the craw-fish. 

So they walked along beside the brook- 
let, turning over the smaller flat stones and 
poking under those too heavy to lift. Mrs. 
Aaron Posey directed the explorations, her 
skirts lifted high in both hands ; Mrs. Slo- 
cum soon tired, and sat down on a mossy 
rock to rest, and the schoolteacher kept 
i54 


ZEBEDEE V 


near Mrs. Posey, from whom it was no 
easy matter to become detached; but Miss 
Higgins, with the freedom of a member 
of the family, did as she liked, and walked 
on ahead, stooping occasionally over a 
stone, or poking in the mud with a stick. 
She had turned a bend in the creek where 
the bordering willows and overhanging 
elders hid her from the others, when she 
was heard to emit a shrill cry, then a series 
of short, staccato shrieks. 

The young teacher clutched Mrs. 
Posey’s arm ; but no emergency ever took 
Mrs. Aaron unawares. With skirts held 
higher she ran around the bend of the 
stream. Miss Higgins was standing with 
hands upraised and fingers separated, look- 
ing down at something on the ground. 
Mrs. Aaron quickly reached her sister’s 
side, and exclaimed in a disgusted tone — 

“ For the land’s sake, Julia, do have 
155 


ZEBEDEE V 


some sense! The sight of a neckid boy 
ain’t a-goin to kill you, at your age ! ” 
Miss Higgins replied with a wail — 
“ But they ain’t a soul in, sister ! ” 

The others had come up by this time, 
and all four surveyed the stretch of water 
before them. The creek here broadened 
to a considerable width, and its depth made 
the spot the favorite swimming-hole of 
many generations. From shade to shade 
the pool stretched, comfortably leaning 
trunks of trees overhanging the banks, its 
smooth surface unbroken save by breeze- 
blown ripples, by gently waving willow 
branches, and by one high, pointed rock 
which rose from near the center of the 
pool, and which had borne the imprint of 
many bare feet. Now, however, as Miss 
Higgins had said, there was no one in the 
pool; the clear water revealed no lurking 
small boy. 

15b 


ZEBEDEE V 


But Mrs. Aaron Posey was not to be 
so easily alarmed as her maiden sister. 
“ Well,” she said, “ here ’s the clo’es, and 
I reckon their owner ain’t far off. You 
set down here and get over your scare, and 
I ’ll go upstream and find him. This ain’t 
the time of year for any boy to be in 
swimmin’.” 

She marched off determinedly, every 
well-planted step expressing the time-hon- 
ored disapproval of the matron for the 
swimming-hole. In a very few minutes, 
however, she returned in evident excite- 
ment, holding outstretched a long bam- 
boo fishing rod with line attached, and 
a broad-brimmed hat of the sombrero 
type. 

“ Whose hat is this ? ” she demanded 
hoarsely, as soon as she was within speak- 
ing distance. The other women sat limply, 
staring at the things Mrs. Posey carried. 
157 


ZEBEDEE V 


Mrs. Aaron came closer, fairly stood over 
them, and repeated her question. Every- 
one recognized the hat; only one man in 
that vicinity was of sufficiently romantic 
turn to wear such headgear. There was 
really no need to answer Mrs. Posey’s 
question, but Mrs. Slocum said, in a 
hushed, awe-filled voice, 

“ It’s Zebedee V. Slocum’s!” 

Mrs. Aaron nodded. “ That ’s jest 
whose it is,” she said. “ And there ’s his 
clo’es. Now where ’s Zebedee V. Slocum ? 
It ain’t to be expected he ’s gone home 
with nothin’ on ! ” 

The four women looked at the swim- 
ming-hole, then at each other, with under- 
standing and horror. Miss Higgins began 
to weep. 

“ This is what comes of advertisin’ for 
a wife,” she sobbed. 

Mrs. Slocum nodded. “ And it ain’t two 
158 


ZEBEDEE V 

year yet ! ” she said, in a shocked, hushed 
tone. 

The young schoolteacher’s face was 
very white. “ Oh, you don’t really sup- 
pose he’s drowned himself?” she ex- 
claimed, her voice quavering with fright 
and horror. “ Oh, it is n’t possible ! ” 

“ Pore soul, pore soul,” sobbed Miss 
Higgins. “ He might ’a’ lived for years 
and been happy ! ” 

“ He must ’a’ had a right smart to 
stand, before he got drove into doin’ sech 
a deed as this,” said Mrs. Slocum, shak- 
ing her head mournfully, and using the 
tone that Pocahontas considers proper in 
speaking of those deceased. 

“ Well,” said Mrs. Aaron Posey, after 
a pause, “ it ’s a marvel to me he ’d work 
himself up to it, hatin’ work as he 
did!” 

“ I would n’t talk like that of the dead 
i59 


ZEBEDEE V 


ef I was you, Annie Lee/’ said Mrs. Slo- 
cum, in shocked protestation. 

“ Truth 's truth, dead or livin',” de- 
clared Mrs. Aaron. “ And I will say it 's 
the decentest suicide I ever heard of. 
He picked out a quiet, secluded spot, 
where he could n't pollute anything, and 
he left his clo'es in a dry place. They 'll 
cut over real nice for Jeromy Faunt le 
Roy. I cert'n'y would n't 'a' looked for 
as much as this from Zebedee V. Slo- 
cum. It 's the first time I ever knew 
him to show any common sense about 
anything.” 

“ Oh, sister, I don't see how you can 
talk like that,” wailed Miss Higgins, 
“ when the pore man 's gone to his 
account ! ” 

“ That 's a fact,” admitted Mrs. Aaron. 
“ I reckon the account 'll be enough for 
him, too, without any testimony of ours. 

160 


ZEBEDEE V 

But it ain’t any use to stay here and talk 
about him.” 

Mrs. Slocum shook her head. “ Some- 
body ’s got to break it to HER,” she said. 

“ Yes, and somebody ’s got to come 
dredge,” said Mrs. Aaron. “ We better 
be goin’, instead of wastin’ time here.” 

Miss Higgins mopped her eyes, and 
stood up. “ I ’ll get the minister to go 
pray with — HER,” she said. 

“ For the land’s sake,” said Mrs. Posey, 
in a disgusted tone, “ Flora Slocum 
would n’t want that young feller floppin’ 
around her any more ’n I would. Go tell 
her yourself, and offer to get the chil- 
dren’s supper, whilst she attends to 
things. She won’t let you; but ef you 
got to ease yo’ feelin’s, that ’s about as 
harmless a way as any.” 

The schoolteacher was still pale and 
trembling. “ Oh, do you think it is just 
161 


ZEBEDEE V 


right to leave the — the body here 
alone ? ” she asked timidly. 

“ It don’t seem feelin’,” Mrs. Slocum 
acquiesced, looking solemnly out at the 
quiet pool. 

“ Hum,” sniffed Mrs. Posey, “ I reckon 
it ’s safe enough where it is ; but of course 
you won’t do any harm waitin’ here, ef 
you want to. I never believe in settin’ 
up with a corpse, myself ! ” 

“ Oh, no,” exclaimed the teacher, 
growing still paler, “ I could n’t do that ; 
I could n't stay here alone ! I thought 
maybe you would ! ” 

Mrs. Aaron looked her indignation. 
“ I never was one to stay behind when 
they ’s work to be done,” she declared. 
“ I could n’t do a mite of good stayin’ 
here.” 

Miss Higgins added her pleading note, 
and Mrs. Slocum said, “ They ain’t ary 
162 


ZEBEDEE V 


one of us could stay, Annie Lee, and I do 
think somebody ought to. Nobody but 
you could stand it.” 

Mrs. Aaron stared at them for a mo- 
ment, then seated herself on the ground 
with great precision, and spread her skirts 
around her. “ I ain’t afraid, ef that ’s 
what you ’re drivin’ at,” she said. “ You 
go on home, and tell Flora Slocum I ’m 
here; and ef you see Mr. Posey tell him 
there ’s cold meat in the ice-chest.” 

The others prepared to go, and Miss 
Higgins turned for a farewell look at the 
swimming-hole, the watery exit of their 
old neighbor. At a choking gasp from 
her the others looked, too — and were 
held in mute, staring amazement. 

The limpid pool was quiet as before; 
the shady banks still showed no signs of 
human life; waving green things had not 
ceased caressing the cool water. All these 
163 


ZEBEDEE V 


remained unchanged ; it was towards 
the high rock which rose from near the 
middle of the swimming-hole that the 
ladies looked. Above the rock arose the 
dripping head and wet, hairy arms of a 
man. It was not the ghost of Zebedee V., 
but the face, well known to all of them, 
of Mr. Willy Posey. When they saw it 
daily as he drove around with their mail 
it was childishly fresh and rosy; now it 
was purply gray, and its teeth were chat- 
tering with cold. It reminded the school- 
teacher of a big, white bullfrog just climb- 
ing out upon a rock; she had seen many 
in just that position. 

Mrs. Aaron Posey was the first to break 
the spell of silence which their surprise 
had thrown upon them. “ What you doin’ 
out there?” her voice rang over the 
waters. 

“ For Gawd’s sake, Cousin Annie Lee, 
164 


ZEBEDEE V 


go home with them women and let us come 
outen here,” chattered Mr. Willy. 

Mrs. Aaron seldom missed the point at 
issue. “ Where's Zebedee V. Slocum?” 
she demanded. 

“ He ’s down behind this here rock. 
Y-y-y-es ’m.” 

“ Where ’s your clo’es? ” 

“ B-b-b-ack yonder in the bushes,” re- 
plied Mr. Willy, his elbows shaking with 
cold. “ 'Deed, ef you all don’t let us outen 
here right quick, we cert’n’y will ketch 
our death of cold ! ” 

Mrs. Aaron Posey arose without an- 
other word, and with skirts held high led 
the way back to the Dayton. 

On the following afternoon of Sabbath 
quiet, while Mrs. Aaron was rocking and 
reading on her porch, and her husband 
was leaning comfortably back in his arm- 

165 


ZEBEDEE V 


chair with his feet propped against the 
railing, the letter-carrier’s well-known 
vehicle turned into the yard. Mr. Aaron 
called out a cheerful greeting, but his 
wife did not look up from her paper. 
The carrier descended, somewhat stiffly, 
brought from under the seat of his Day- 
ton a tin pail filled with shining small fish, 
and set it on the top step of the porch. 

“ Good evedid’, Cousid Addie Lee,” he 
ventured. “ I thoughd maybe you ’d like 
some o’ these gudgeod fo’ yo’ supper.” 

“ Thank you,” said Mrs. Aaron, with 
great dignity. “ I don’t believe in cookin’, 
Sunday evenin’s.” 

“ They ’ll be jest as good fo’ breakfast, 
Willy,” said Mr. Aaron, with a sympa- 
thetic wink at his cousin. “ You seem to 
caught cold. Seen Zebedee V. to-day?” 

Mr. Willy smiled. “ I reckon he must 
’a’ god a liddle cold yesterday, too, some- 
166 


ZEBEDEE V 


ways. I heard Jeroby sayid’ ’at Mis’ Slo- 
cum ’s a-keepid’ his pa id bed, all poul- 
ticed up.” 

The two men grinned understanding^ 
at each other, but Mrs. Posey’s paper did 
not so much as tremble. 

“ They ’s a righd smard o’ comfort id 
stayid’ single,” said Mr. Willy. “ I 
reckod I bedder be goid’ ! ” 


167 


XIV 


One afternoon of early June, when the 
letter-carrier opened the door into Mrs. 
Aaron Posey’s sitting-room, he found her 
apparently dressed for a drive. The 
strings of her second-best straw bonnet 
were hanging over her shoulders, and she 
was busily packing some delicacies into 
a small fancy basket. 

“ Why, good evenin’, Cousin Annie 
Lee,” he chirped. “ Goin’ out ? ” 

“ Yes,” replied Mrs. Posey, in a pre- 
occupied tone. “ I ’m a-goin’ to take 
somethin’ to old Miss Lucy White. I 
don’t suppose she ’ll be able to eat it, and 
I certainly do hate to think maybe I ’m 
feedin’ Zebedee V. Slocum ; but I suppose 
I ought to show her some little attention 
before she goes.” 

1 68 


ZEBEDEE V 


“ I reckon you ought to done it a little 
mite sooner,” said Mr. Willy. “ She ’s 
gone.” 

Mrs. Aaron turned quickly about to face 
him. “ You don’t say! Well, I never! 
And here I got all this stuff on my hands ! 
When did she die? ” 

“ Died last night,” said Mr. Willy. 

“ Easy? ” queried Mrs. Aaron. 

“ Real easy,” replied Mr. Willy. 

“ Well, it’s a marvel, then — dogged 
like she ’s been by Zebedee V. Slocum. If 
I ’d been in her place, I ’d ’a’ found some 
way to get him out of my house whilst I 
was dyin’, I know that.” 

“ Oh well, now, Cousin Annie Lee, Zeb- 
edee V. ’s been real kind to her, he cer- 
tainly has; and she wasn’t any sure 
enough kin to him, neither — jest his first 
wife’s aunt.” 

“ Kind! ” scoffed Mrs. Posey. “ Kind! 

169 


ZEBEDEE V 


Oh, yes, he was kind, was n’t he ? Got all 
he could squeeze out of her whilst she ’s 
livin’, and hangin’ around closer ’n a 
brother to get all he could when she 
died ! Oh, yes, he was kind, was n’t he ? 
I reckon most men ’d be kind to the 
goose that lays the golden egg, ef they 
had one.” 

“ ’Deed, Cousin Annie Lee,” remon- 
strated Mr. Willy, “ you certainly do mis- 
jedge Zebedee V. I never can see what 
makes all the ladies so down on him,” he 
sighed. 

“ Hum! ” ejaculated Mrs. Aaron. 

“ Well, I don’t,” reiterated Mr. Willy. 
“ I drove by there this mornin’, and seein’ 
the black on the door-knob, I knew she ’d 
passed away; so in I went to see ef I 
could do anything. Zebedee V. was settin’ 
at her desk, lookin’ over some of her 
papers, and when he saw me a-comin’ in, 
170 


ZEBEDEE V 


he jest had to wipe the tears from his eyes, 
he felt so bad. Yes ’m.” 

“ Hum ! ” said Mrs. Aaron, again. 

“ Yes ’m, he did,” Mr. Willy insisted. 
“ And ef you ’d a-heard him talkin’, you ’d 
never be doubtin’ the sincerity of his grief. 
He sat there mighty sorrerful like, a-tellin’ 
me all about the deceased, and wipin’ away 
the tears from his eyes every oncet in a 
while with his pocket hankcher. ’Course 
I know ’t he don’t unbosom himself to 
eve’body same as he does to me, but it 
certainly did make me feel real bad to 
hear him go on so. Yes ’m.” 

“ I suppose he ’s a-goin’ to manage the 
funeral?” suggested Mrs. Aaron. 

“ Yes ’m,” said Mr. Willy. “ He says 
he would n’t be the one to fail in any 
observance of what ’s right and seemly 
towards his first wife’s Aunt Lucy. Says 
pore Lucy was a faithful, lovin’ spouse, 
I 7 I 


ZEBEDEE V 


and she certainly did think a heap of her 
Aunt Lucy that she was named after. 
Said she ’s always anticipatin’ her Aunt 
Lucy would do well by her, and it was n’t 
anybody’s fault that she died too soon to 
enjoy the fruits of her expectations. Said 
it was only what ’s due to pore Lucy’s 
mem’ry for him to enjoy ’em now twofold, 
for himself and her too.” 

“ I reckon that ’s the way he ’d enjoyed 
’em ef Lucy was a-livin’, likewise,” said 
Mrs. Aaron. “ Ef Zebedee V. Slocum’s 

* t 

common sense was equal to his powers of 
enjoyment, he ’d be a long sight better off 
then he is now. What ’d he say about the 
funeral? ” 

“ Well ’m, I reckon he ’s goin’ to have 
it real handsome. He says it certainly 
would look downright ungrateful, not to 
do the best possible by the remains, when 
her that ’s departed was known and noted 
172 


ZEBEDEE V 


for her generous sperit. Says he wants 
to have the best of everything. Goin’ to 
have ten hacks come up from Balt’mer, 
and a hearse with feathers on it. Says 
he wants to mark Aunt Lucy’s mem’ry 
with all the elegance possible, and show 
the people of Pocahontas what a funeral 
can be like, when them that ’s left behind 
has feelin’s of deep respect and reverence 
for the departed, not to mention gratitude 
for the wealth and blessin’s incidentally 
bestowed, as in this case. Yes ’m.” 

“ Ten hacks from Balt’mer ! ” exclaimed 
Mrs. Aaron Posey. “ I must say I think 
the Daytons and carriages hereabouts 
would do jest as good. I don’t believe in 
introducin’ new fashions like that into the 
community, makin’ other people want to 
go and do the same when their time comes. 
I don’t call that a proper sperit.” 

“ Well, Z. V. ’s got proper sperit. He ’s 
173 


ZEBEDEE V 


chuck full of it. He showed me the poetry 
he put in the ‘ Sun Paper ’ with the funeral 
notice, too, and it certainly is elegant. I 
took a copy of it,” said Mr. Willy, draw- 
ing a piece of paper from his pocket-book. 
“ Here it is. 

4 The one we loved is gone at last, 

Into the dimness of the past. 

How can we fail our aunt to miss, 
Although she ’s treading realms of bliss? 
But well we know that we shall see 
All those we loved for eternity. 

By her loving nephew, 
Zebedee V. Slocum/ 

Z. V. says the minister helped him with 
the last two lines, and they don’t jest ex- 
actly represent his sentiments. Says he 
loved each and all of his wives with deep 
affection, but he certainly did think it was 
askin’ a good deal of a man to take upon 
himself sech earthly cares for all eternity. 
i74 


ZEBEDEE V 


But howsoever, he would n’t hurt the min- 
ister’s feelin’s by leavin’ ’em out. Yes ’m.” 

“ Well, it ’ll cost a lot to put it in the 
paper. I reckon Zebedee V. Slocum must 
have mighty good reasons for spendin’ 
that much money,” said Mrs. Aaron. 
“ Did he say whether the funeral was 
directed by the will ? ” 

“ No ’m, he ain’t opened the will as yet. 
Said he never did think it was right to pry 
into the secrets of the dead until the fu- 
neral was over; and anyway, Mr. Abel 
Brown has the will in his safe, and Aunt 
Lucy had wrote on the outside in her own 
handwritin’, ‘ Not to be opened 1 till after 
my funeral.’ Says he did go so far as to 
suggest to Mr. Abel Brown that it might 
have somethin’ inside by way of direc- 
tions, but Mr. Abel Brown said he reck- 
oned he might ’s well see that Aunt Lucy’s 
directions on the outside was carried out 
i75 


ZEBEDEE V 


before they troubled to hunt for any on 
the inside. Yes ’m.” 

“ I ’m glad he met his match for once,” 
declared Mrs. Aaron. “ Is the time set? ” 

“ Ten o’clock, Friday. I reckon it ’ll 
be real handsome. Yes ’m,” said Mr. 
Willy, and took his departure with an air 
intended to convey an impression of sym- 
pathy and sadness, tempered by a pleasant 
anticipation. 


176 


XV 


But even Mr. Willy Posey's expecta- 
tions of the funeral were more than real- 
ized. Circumstances had not often fa- 
vored Mr. Slocum with so fine a chance 
to display his powers of invention and his 
love of the spectacular. For once his fine 
imagination was given free rein, and his 
own enjoyment of it was exceeded only 
by the results achieved. Such lugubrious 
evidences of grief had been seen in Poca- 
hontas never before; the funeral might 
have been the final burial of all that life 
held dear for Mr. Slocum, so marked were 
the evidences of his sorrow. 

The guests who drove into the yard in 
Daytons and buggies were put into a 
proper frame of mind at once, and into 
1 77 


ZEBEDEE V 


some state of wonderment as well, by the 
very gate-posts themselves ; for these were 
swathed in black, and over them had been 
erected an arch, also with sable drapings, 
surmounted by a pole from which a flag 
at half mast hung limply. The ten hacks 
from Baltimore were drawn up in line at 
one side of the house, so placed that every 
shining wheel showed to best advantage. 
The plumed hearse, a novelty hitherto un- 
dreamt of in Pocahontas, stood in front of 
the porch, and the guests were obliged to 
walk around it in order to mount the steps. 
The pillars of the porch were twined in 
black, and every shutter was closed tightly, 
throwing the interior into mournful gloom. 
Zebedee V. fairly reveled in the funeral 
details. Flora, unused to Maryland’s 
burial manners, only mildly remonstrated ; 
she would not for worlds hurt the feelings 
of her kindly neighbors, and if that was 
178 


ZEBEDEE V 

the way they were used to having funerals, 
as her husband assured her it was, she 
felt bound to acquiesce in the arrange- 
ments. But still she marveled ; and when 
Zora came home in new black, and gave 
no evidence of surprise at the grandeur of 
the display, Flora, though puzzled and a 
little shocked, did no more than go around 
with tightly shut lips and a disapproving 
air. Her husband told Mr. Willy Posey 
in private that Flora seemed scared of the 
expense, and that after having frittered 
away so much of his good money on Zeb- 
edora, and with a goodly amount remain- 
ing in the bank, and dead Aunt Lucy’s will 
unopened. 

When the people coming from the 
light outside became accustomed to the 
darkness within, they could not fail to 
note that the arrangements there were as 
impressive as those without. Mr. Willy 
179 


ZEBEDEE V 


Posey was a pall-bearer, and Mrs. Aaron 
sat between Mrs. Julius Todd, with whom 
she was not on speaking terms, and Mr. 
Lewis Cary, who was stone deaf ; so that 
it was not until she was in her own Dayton 
with Mr. Posey and her two sisters for 
companions that she could relieve her feel- 
ings by speech. Then, having driven 
through the black-swathed arch and under 
the sad-looking flag, she drew a deep 
breath, and said: 

“ Well ! Well, I never ! If that did n’t 
beat anything I ever saw in all my born 
days!” 

Mrs. Sissy Slocum always cried at fu- 
nerals; now her eyes and the tip of her 
nose were very red: The minister’s re- 
marks had been most impressive. She was 
leaning back comfortably, prepared to en- 
joy the drive to the cemetery ; in one hand 
she held her handkerchief, in the other a 
180 


ZEBEDEE V 


small black fan, and both hands were 
resting on her well-rounded lap. 

“ It was real handsome,” she said, with 
a dolorous shake of her head and tears in 
her voice. “ I don’t know ’s I ever saw 
anything handsomer than that piller of 
purple everlastin’ with ‘ Aunt 9 in white 
chrysanthe’ums. It ’ll wear well, too. I 
always say it pays to get the best.” 

“Handsome!” exclaimed Mrs. Posey, 
scornfully. “ Handsome / say ! Jest 
nothin’ but show. That’s what it was; 
it was show. You can call it handsome, 
but I call it show.” 

“ It certainly was managed real well, 
sister,” Miss Julia Higgins suggested, 
peacefully. 

“ I don’t know what you call managed,” 
retorted Mrs. Aaron. “ Whoever made 
out that list for the undertaker had mighty 
queer ideas o’ management, to my way of 
181 


ZEBEDEE V 


thinkin\ The idea, the very idea, of callin' 
out Mis’ Julius Todd's name before mine! 
It ain't that I care a mite, as anybody 
might have sense enough to know; but 
when it comes to makin' a effort to do 
things right, I always say they ought to 
be done right. I been President of the 
Ladies' Aid eleven times, and Mis' Julius 
Todd 's never so much as had a vote, to 
my knowledge. I don't mean to hold 
myself above even the meanest of the 
Lord's creatures, but there 's such a thing 
as havin' proper respect showed you. I 
don’t know what you call managed." 

The long procession had reached a turn 
in the road, and the hearse and some of the 
hacks could be seen plainly around the 
bend. They suggested to Miss Julia a dis- 
creet change of subject. 

“ Did you notice who 's in the hacks, 
sister ? " she asked. 

182 


ZEBEDEE V 


“ Hacks ! Hacks ! ” said Mrs. Posey, 
with a jerk of her head which sent even 
her well-placed bonnet awry. “ I reckon 
I did notice who went in the hacks. It 
took three for the family, and three for 
the minister and the pall-bearers; that 
left four. Maybe Zebedee V. Slocum 
can explain it to himself how he ar- 
ranged them four hacks, but it ’s more 'n 
/ can!” 

Mrs. Slocum looked interested at once, 
and her gloom perceptibly lightened. 
“ Did n't he put Cousin Hanson Brown 
and Mr. Julius Todd in the same one?” 
she asked. 

The three women looked at one another 
intently, with meaning glances and shakes 
of the head. 

“ Land ! ” exclaimed Miss Higgins. 
“ What d' you reckon 'll happen? ” 

“ They ain't never spoke sence the last 

183 


ZEBEDEE V 

minister come, have they?” asked Mrs. 
Slocum. 

"No, they ain’t;” said Mrs. Aaron, 
“ and I must say I think Cousin Hanson 
Brown was jest in the right. I never can 
see the use of callin’ a young unmarried 
man into a community when you can get 
a man of family for the same money. It ’s 
jest invitin’ a disturbin’ element, that ’s 
what it is.” 

“ Oh, well,” said Mrs. Slocum, always 
ready to pacify, “ this young man ’s two 
years ’ll be up come November, and I 
reckon they won’t be any harm done. 
Goodness knows, they ain’t much chance 
of a man with a chin like his and that 
kind of spindly legs a-breakin’ very many 
hearts. I ain’t seen any evidences of any- 
thing of the sort, and I reckon we ’d know 
it ef there had been.” 

“ I think Mr. Bean makes real fine 
184 


ZEBEDEE V 


prayers/’ said Miss Julia Higgins, with 
unusual dignity, “ and I reckon love ’d be 
blind to his limbs and his chin, Sister 
Sissy.” 

Mrs. Posey turned towards her quickly. 
“ For goodness sake, Julia, do have some 
sense. Ef you was to talk like that before 
folks that did n’t know what family you 
belonged to, they ’d think it was you 
Cousin Hanson Brown had in mind. For 
my part, as I said, I think he ’s jest right 
to prefer a married man with a woman 
to manage him. If Mis’ Julius Todd 
had a little mite of common sense, her 
husband ’d a show a little more of it, 
I reckon.” 

“ Did n’t they put Unc’ Lewis Cary in 
the hack with ’em? ” pursued Mrs. Slocum. 

“ Yes, they did,” said Mrs. Posey. “ I 
reckon they thought he ’d play peace- 
maker, though how ’s he to do it when he 

185 


ZEBEDEE V 


can’t hear a word, is more ’n I can see. 
And Little Hanse went in with ’em. 
Much good he ’ll do ; anybody that lets 
himself be led around by Zebedee V. Slo- 
cum like him.” 

“ Did their hack go next to the fam- 
ily? ” asked Mrs. Slocum. 

“ Family ! I reckon it did n’t ! It went 
ahead of the family, that’s what it did. 
I suppose he had it that a way to show 
that he did n’t claim no kin with the Whit- 
tleses. Willy Whittle was own second 
cousin to Miss Lucy’s father, and even 
if they do live over to Joppa and could n’t 
get to see her often, they was family, a 
good deal more ’n Zebedee V. Slocum is, 
and ought to ’a’ been put next. I felt real 
bad for Mis’ Whittle; she looked like she 
felt it.” 

“ She had on real elegant black, too,” 
said Miss Julia. 


1 86 


ZEBEDEE V 


“ And then, to put Mis’ Frank Slocum 
and Mis’ William Cary together, and leave 
two empty seats in the hack! It ain’t 
that I want to push where I ain’t wanted, 
but I do think a body has a right to what ’s 
due ’em. Goodness knows, it would n’t 
be pleasant with them two, for they has n’t 
been any love lost between ’em since 
Mis’ William Cary heard Mis’ Frank 
Slocum tellin’ Flora over the telephone 
how she was goin’ to have her fall bon- 
net trimmed, an’ Mis’ William Cary come 
out in church with one jest like it before 
Mis’ Frank Slocum could get hers done. 
I wouldn’t want to be in any hack with 
either one of those women. I wouldn’t 
trust ’em.” 

% 

Mr. Posey spoke for the first time. “ I 
reckon they could n’t do much to harm you 
in a hack,” he said. 

“ Oh,” returned his wife. “ Maybe ef 
187 


ZEBEDEE V 


Zebedee V. Slocum knew your feelin’s 
he ’d put you in with ’em. There ! Look 
at that! If that man hasn’t got a flag- 
pole planted at the grave! Is that crape 
tied on to it? ” 


XVI 


The funeral was long remembered in 
Pocahontas, and not alone for its unusual 
magnificence and the ten hacks. Mr. Slo- 
cum's arrangements of the people within 
them had curious effects on the social life 
of the place for several months thereafter. 
Nor was it to Mr. Slocum alone that his 
first wife's Aunt Lucy's will was a matter 
of great interest; its provisions gave no 
deeper satisfaction to anyone than to 
Mrs. Aaron Posey. 

The afternoon of the day following the 
funeral the letter-carrier was late in 
reaching the last house on his route. Mrs. 
Posey had planned to invite him to stay 
to supper, and was mixing biscuits when 
he came in. 


189 


ZEBEDEE V 


“ Why, good evenin’, Cousin Annie 
Lee,” he exclaimed, quite with the air of 
never having said it before. “ How d’ you 
feel after the funeral? ” 

“ It was n’t my funeral,” declared Mrs. 
Aaron. “ How ’d you think I ’d feel? ” 
Mr. Willy Posey looked a little startled, 
and paused uncertainly in the middle of 
the room. “ Ma’am ? ” he asked. 

“ Set down,” said Mrs. Aaron. “ I 
never could bear to have a body gairp 
at me.” 

So Mr. Willy obediently sat down, and 
was soon rocking vigorously. Mrs. Aaron 
continued her preparations for supper. 
The day had been rainy, and Mr. Aaron 
Posey had busied himself outside, waiting, 
as he expressed it, until “ the old lady 
worked off her mad ” ; but it often takes 
more than the gentle flight of time to 
soothe an outraged dignity. 

190 


ZEBEDEE V 


Mr. Willy was well aware of his cousin’s 
unusual perturbation ; he had known 
Mrs. Aaron many years, and no one was 
more familiar with her moods, unless it 
were Mr. Aaron himself. Mr. Willy 
spoke : 

“ Zebedee V. ain’t feelin’ ve’y well to- 
day.” Mrs. Aaron banged the oven door. 
“ Ef I was Mis’ Slocum I ’d be real wor- 
ried about him.” 

“ I reckon you would,” said Mrs. Aaron, 
“ but by the grace o’ Providence there ’s 
one member of that family ’s got some 
common sense.” 

“ Yes ’m,” said Mr. Willy, “ I reckon 
they is. But I dunno but I ’d ruther have 
a little sympathy in a wife, ef I had to 
have one, instead of all common sense. 
Zebedee V. don’t get his share o’ sympathy 
in this world; that he don’t.” 

“ Don’t he?” asked Mrs. Aaron, with 
191 


ZEBEDEE V 


emphasis. That ’s a pity. He seems to 
get most everything else he wants.” 

“ No, ma’am, he don’t,” said Mr. Willy, 
“ and he certainly did work mighty hard 
over that funeral.” 

“ I understood that nobody ast him to,” 
said Mrs. Posey. 

“ No, ma’am ; but Z. V. always does the 
best he can for everybody, dead or livin’; 
and he surely did work hard over that 
funeral. I ’s talkin’ to him night before ; 
we sat up together with the corpse. He 
certainly did feel bad. Said his first wife’s 
Aunt Lucy had been a mighty good friend 
to him and his’n, and it filled him with 
grief to think that he had n’t her to go to 
any more. Said he never would be 
able to spend any of her money without 
thinkin’ how his first wife loved her, and 
how kind she was to everybody. Said he 
hoped he ’d prove himself worthy of the 
192 


ZEBEDEE V 


trust about to be imposed in him; and as 
for the funeral, he had done his pore best 
to make it worthy of the departed. Said 
he reckoned they ’d be some to criticise, 
and even Flora had n’t spoke scarcely a 
word to him sence he went to his Aunt 
Lucy’s house to take care of her in her 
last illness ; but he could n’t fail to under- 
stand that, with his knowledge o’ women. 
Said Flora was as good a wife as she 
knew how to be, but he reckoned it would 
be past human nature for a woman not 
to feel some slight qualms of jealousy 
when her husband showed sech mo’nin’ 
for his first wife’s aunt. Said he felt for 
Flora under the circumstances, but he 
owed it to the late lamented to show his 
sorrer.” 

“ Well, he showed it,” said Mrs. 
Aaron. 

“ Yes ’m,” admitted Mr. Willy. “ Grief 
193 


ZEBEDEE V 

comes hard to a sensitive nature like Zeb- 
edee V.’s; and likewise disappointment.’' 

“ Disappointment ! ” scoffed Mrs. Posey. 
“ If Zebedee V. Slocum had any common 
sense he ’d ’a’ known he was layin’ up 
trouble for himself, the way he fixed the 
people in them hacks.” 

“ He ’s tellin’ me about that,” said Mr. 
Willy. “ Said he thought they was one 
occasion when the petty differences that ’s 
bound to arise in a community had ought 
to be overlooked, and for his part he ’s 
real glad of the opportunity to show that 
he had n’t any hard feelings towards none, 
and did n’t take sides. So he fixed the 
people in his hacks so ’s they ’d have a 
chanct to talk peaceable like, and show a 
Christian sperit in the presence of death. 
Yes ’m. It certainly was fine to hear him 
talk, in the still hours of the night. Might 
’a’ been a minister himself.” 


194 


ZEBEDEE V 


“ Hum ! ” said Mrs. Aaron. “ Nobody 
ever accused Zebedee V. Slocum of not 
bein’ able to talk.” 

“ Yes ’m,” said Mr. Willy. “ And it 
certainly does seem hard that anybody 
with sech noble feelin’s should be shocked 
and disappointed like the way he ’s been. 
Yes ’m ” 

u Hum! What shocked him?” asked 
Mrs. Posey. 

“ Miss Lucy,” replied Mr. Willy, feel- 
ingly. “ He ’s tellin’ me about it, with 
tears of sorrer in his eyes. He went home 
with Mr. Abel Brown right after the fu- 
neral, because he thought it was n’t right 
to leave the affairs of the dead in a state 
of uncertainty any longer ’n was neces- 
sary. Says Mr. Abel Brown got Miss 
Lucy’s will outen his safe, and they drove 
back to her house to read it. He said 
they found Flora and the children and 
195 


ZEBEDEE V 

the Whittleses a-settin’ there waitin’ for 
’em — all except Flora, and she was 
puttin’ the house in order while the rest 
set around. Said it made him sick to 
think of anybody bein’ as curious as them 
Whittleses, and that if he ’d ’a’ been in 
their place he certain’y would n’t ’a’ pre- 
sumed on relationship like that. Said he 
had the kind of sensitive nature that 
always knows when it ain’t wanted, but 
he supposed the good Lord knew what 
he ’s about in makin’ people different 
ways.” 

“ I thank my stars He did,” said Mrs. 
Posey. 

“ Yes’m,” said Mr. Willy, and winked 
at his Cousin Aaron. “ Well ’m, I cer- 
tainly did feel real bad for Zebedee V. 
when he told me about the will. Said 
Aunt Lucy left ten dollars apiece to each 
and all of the children, and a hundred to 
196 


ZEBEDEE V 


Flora, which touched his heart more ’n he 
could say, seem’ Flora was n’t a mite of kin 
to her. Said he jest had to ponder on what 
a generous nature hers was, not to show 
any jealousy to her thet sat in the place of 
his first wife, which was Miss Lucy’s own 
niece. Said he hoped it was a rebuke and 
a warnin’ to Flora’s jealous nature. Then 
the will left all of Miss Lucy’s clo’es and 
personal effects to the Whittleses, and he 
said he thought that was no more ’n right 
an’ proper, after all, and showed good 
sense on his Aunt Lucy’s part; for he 
and his would n’t demean her mem’ry by 
appearin’ in half-used things after her 
leavin’ her wealth to him. Then the will 
went on to say that to her well-beloved 
nephew, Zebedee V. Slocum, she left as 
a free gift all the debts he owed her, of 
whatever kind and amount they might 
be. He says he felt real touched by that, 
197 


ZEBEDEE V 


thinkin’ it showed Aunt Lucy’s desire to 
start fair and square with him, so ’t he 
could enjoy the fullness of her bequest. 
And he felt still more kindlier to her 
when the will went on to say that she 
wished to leave him the greatest pleas- 
ure that she could, and she well knew he 
would see to it that her funeral was of 
the best, and how he ’d enjoy managin’ it; 
and therefore she left him the full amount 
of the expenses of her funeral, howso- 
ever great they might be, with her blessin’ 
and thanks; and the rest of her estate 
she left to the Meth’dist Church. Yes ’m. 
Zebedee V. says he reckons it ’ll take 
many years to restore his shattered faith 
in human nature. Yes ’m.” 

“ Well! ” exclaimed Mrs. Aaron, stand- 
ing still beside the table, a plate of hot 
biscuits in one hand and the coffee-pot in 
the other. “ Well, I never! ef that ain’t 
198 


ZEBEDEE V 


the greatest thing I ever heard! Now 
ain’t it a shame that folks can’t will away 
some of their good common sense! Miss 
Lucy had some to spare ! ” She set the 
plate of steaming biscuits on the table 
with a thump. “ Supper ’s ready,” she 
said, cheerfully. “ Set up your chairs.” 


199 


XVII 


Mrs. Aaron Posey had the rheumatism. 
She was perfectly sure she caught cold at 
Miss Lucy White's funeral, and so blamed 
all her suffering on Zebedee V.; even 
when Zebedee V.'s daughter came up to 
look after her, her affection for the girl 
was not as keen as her indignation against 
the father. 

“ It was n't enough," she peevishly de- 
clared to Zora, “ for your Pa to set half 
the people of Pocahontas by the years, 
and make a laughing stock of himself into 
the bargain; here I got the rheumatics 
in consequence of the length of those fu- 
neral services. Serves me right for being 
a dumb fool, I suppose, and following 
after any of his leadings ! " 

200 


ZEBEDEE V 


Zora flushed so prettily that it was 
really a pity the doctor was not there to 
see. “ Pa did his very best, Mis' Posey,” 
she said, “ and if you 're going to talk 
that way about him I won't stay here, 
that 's all!” 

“ Highty-tighty ! ” Mrs. Aaron began, 
ready to fan her indignation into a fine 
fury; but before she could get any 
farther Zora threw herself into her 
arms, in a storm of tears, regardless 
of Mrs. Aaron's aches. It had taken 
only the small excitement to unnerve 
her. 

“ Why, why ! ” Mrs. Aaron exclaimed, 
and was never more surprised in her life 
than when she found herself soothing and 
kissing and petting the sobbing girl. 
“ Why, Zora, darlin' little child, what 's 
the matter with you? Don’t you know 
well enough I wouldn't hurt your feel- 
201 


ZEBEDEE V 


ings for all the rheumatics in the world? 
Why, Zora ! ” 

Zora’s arms were almost choking Mrs. 
Posey’s ample neck ; in response she 
hugged all the harder. “ It ain’t that, it 
ain’t that,” she cried. “ I ’m so sorry for 
my Pa ! I — I’m so so-o-or-ry for my 
Pa — and for myself too ! ” 

“ For the land’s sakes ! ” was all poor 
bewildered Mrs. Posey could get out. But 
the flood-gates of Zora’s pain and indig- 
nation had been opened. 

“ I love Ma, I 1-1-love her ; I did n’t 
want to love her, but I do ! I love Pa, too, 
and I ’ve been 1-1-oving him the longest. I 
know Ma ’s right in everything she d-d-oes. 
I know I ’m the m-m-most ungrateful thing 
that ever lived ; but — I wish — ” 

“ There, there,” said Mrs. Aaron. “ Of 
course you love your Pa best ! Land sakes, 
he ain’t jealous, is he? ” 

202 


ZEBEDEE V 


Zora shook her curls, and gave Mrs. 
Posey’s neck another squeeze. “ N-n-no ! 
Not that I know of! He needn’t be. I 
reckon it ’s m-m-me that ’s jealous, or 
s-s-something ! I’m — I’m a regular 
d-d-devil, I ’m so wicked ! ” 

Mrs. Posey jumped; she was thor- 
oughly shocked ! “ Zora ! Zora Slocum ! 
How dare you say such a word ’s that ! 
Ain’t you ashamed of yourself?” 

“ Y-y-yes ’m,” poor Zora cried. 
“Dreadful ashamed. You don’t know how 
awful it is to f-f-feel you ’re — that ! ” 

“ Better feel it than say it,” said Mrs. 
Aaron, sternly, “ and you thinking about 
joining the Church, too! That’s what 
comes of associating with Ze — ” she re- 
membered just in time. 

Zebedora went on; it was evident that 
she had reached that feminine state of 
mind where she must confide in someone 
203 


ZEBEDEE V 


or perish. “ M-m-ma sent me to Balt’- 
mer, and gave me the 1-1-love-liest clo’es, 
and the children, too; and I know all she 
d-d-does is for the b-best; but oh! I do 
wish she would n’t do it ! ” 

“ Would n’t do what’s best?” Mrs. 
Aaron’s common sense was scandalized, 
but again Zora bobbed her curls into Mrs. 
Aaron’s neck. 

“ Um-hum. I jest wish she ’d let us be 
the way we were before she m-m-married 
poor Pa ! ” 

“ My land!” Mrs. Aaron could think 
of nothing else to say. 

“ It ’s — it ’s jest awful of me; that ’s 
why I said I was a regular — you know ! 
But I do wish it ! I like my new clo’es, es- 
pecially the pink ones; and I reckon Pa 
likes the looks of the place. B-b-but — I 
— I don’t want to have a young girl’s 
life ! They ’s — they ’s other things I ’d 
rather d-d-d-oooo ! ” 


204 


ZEBEDEE V 


And, in a torrent of tears, Zora's secret 
was out. In her relief Mrs. Aaron smiled, 
slowly, grimly at first, then very tenderly. 
After all, Mr. Aaron was still the light 
of her eyes ; she had never forgotten what 
happened twenty years before, and to her 
he had never grown older or stouter than 
the handsome youth who had courted her. 

After a while, when the girl was lying 
quieter in her arms, she said, “ Zora, 
honey, don't you be impatient. Yo' Ma 
knows all about it, honey, and so do I. 
They 's two kinds of good times.; maybe 
more ! Anyways, they 's two ; and you 
might as well finish up with one before 
you begin the other ; 'cause you can't have 
both at one and the same time ! " 

“ I don't want both," Zora was youth- 
fully positive. 

“ Hum," said Mrs. Aaron. “ Well, you 
run out to the barn and talk to Mr. Posey, 
205 


ZEBEDEE V 

and get the red outen your eyes before the 
doctor comes, honey ; maybe he ’ll take 
you to ride ! ” 

So the kindly soul arranged matters as 
kindly souls have always done, and for- 
tunately always will; but when, a few 
days later, Flora heard that she was really 
ill enough to have the doctor, she found 
that she could no longer do without her 
young stepdaughter, and Zora was sent 
for. Thereafter Mr. Posey did his best 
to make his wife comfortable; but pa- 
tience was not her greatest virtue, and 
when she could no longer endure his 
fussy, awkward, well-intentioned minis- 
trations, she sent him off to notify her 
sisters of her illness, and to ask Julia to 
come keep house for her until the rheuma- 
tism passed and she was able to be about 
again. 

She felt greatly relieved when she heard 
206 


ZEBEDEE V 


the sound of wheels in the yard, and im- 
mediately began to plan out the neglected 
house-work. But to her surprise it was 
Mrs. Sissy who came in, and not Miss 
Julia. 

Mrs. Slocum was wearing an air of 
great solemnity and her best bonnet, as 
if she had come prepared for a long stay 
and expected to get out only on Sundays. 
Mrs. Aaron attributed the manner to her 
own state of health, and was not cheered 
thereby. She moved uneasily, and ex- 
claimed with sharp impatience, 

“ For the land’s sakes, Sissy, don’t look 
at me that a way! I ain’t dead yet, nor 
near it. You know as well as I do that 
our family never dies of the rheumatics, 
and we all have ’em ! ” 

Mrs. Slocum was standing in front of 
the bureau ; she removed her bonnet, and 
began to roll the strings into neat little 
207 


ZEBEDEE V 

bundles, to keep them from wrinkling. 
She sighed. 

“ Where’s Julia ?” demanded Mrs. 
Aaron. “ I sent for Julia! ” 

Again Mrs. Slocum sighed; she shook 
her head, and said, “ I thought maybe I 
better come myself.” 

Evidently there was something mys- 
terious in the tone of her voice. Mrs. 
Aaron tried to sit up in bed, but winced 
with pain. “ What ’s the matter ? ” she 
demanded. “ Julia ain’t took too, is she? ” 
Mrs. Slocum laid her bonnet in the 
third bureau drawer, before she answered. 
“ Yes, she is,” she then replied. “ And 
she ’s took bad.” 

Mrs. Aaron lay back with a groan. 
“ Now ain’t that the way?” she said. 
“ Ain’t that the way? Did you ever know 
one child in a family cornin’ down with 
the measles and the others not ketchin’ 
208 


ZEBEDEE V 


it? Now here jest because I'm laid up 
and can't move, Julia 's got to come down 
with somethin’, too. Land! I declare to 
goodness I can't see why things happen 
the way they do in this world." 

“ It ain't the measles she 's got, Annie 
Lee," said Mrs. Slocum, slowly and sol- 
emnly, “ nor yet the rheumatics. To be 
sure, one disease belongs to youth and the 
other to old age, and you might well think 
she 's in her teens or in her dotage, the 
way she 's a-goin’ on." 

“ Plenty has rheumatics that ain't old," 
snapped Mrs. Posey. “ What 's the mat- 
ter with her f " 

Mrs. Slocum pulled up a small rocking 
chair beside Mrs. Posey's bed, and began 
to rock rather nervously. There are few 
better barometers than a rocking chair 
well used. “ She 's in love," she said. 

Mrs. Posey was stunned for a moment. 

209 


ZEBEDEE V 


Then she exclaimed, “ I got to get up. I 
got to get up — I can’t stay here in this 
bed doin’ nothin’ with that goin’ on.” 

“ You might ’s well make yourself 
easy,” said Mrs. Slocum. “ I ’ve said 
and done all and everything a body can, 
and I might ’s well ’a’ saved my breath, 
for all the good it done.” 

“ How ’d you find it out? ” asked Mrs. 
Posey. 

“ Well, I went to open the winder shut- 
ters in the settin’-room the other mornin’ 
before she ’s up. They was a folded piece 
of blue paper stuck in the blind. I don’t 
suppose it ’s necessary for me to explain 
that I never for one minute thought of it ’s 
bein’ a love letter, natchelly. So I opened 
it to see what ’s inside. It was verses. 
Verses, Annie Lee! Not Bible verses, 
neither. Pomes! I was a-readin’ ’em, 
real puzzled like, when Julia come a-run- 
210 


ZEBEDEE V 


nin’ down the stair, and snatched the 
paper outen my hand, and began to carry 
on something dreadful. Said I was spyin’ 
on her, and readin’ her letter, and sech 
like. I must say, I come near gettin’ 
real mad. I cert’n’y did. Me spyin’ on 
her ! ” 

“ High time, I should think, if you 
were ! ” said Mrs. Aaron, sympathetically. 
“ Pomes ! I never would V thought it of 
one of our family. What else happened, 
Sissy? ” 

“ Well, you ’d think she ’s sixteen, from 
the way she takes on. I reckon I cared as 
much for Mr. Slocum as most girls cares 
for their beaux, but I ’m mighty sure I 
never made such a fool of myself over 
any man, as Julia does.” 

“ That ’s always the way,” said Mrs. 
Aaron, pessimistically. “ A married 
woman has to grow common sense for 
21 1 


ZEBEDEE V 


two, but I have yet to see the old maid 
with a mite of it.” 

“ Julia always was soft,” admitted Mrs. 
Slocum. “ But I did think she had had 
time to get over it.” 

“Who is the object?” asked Mrs. 
Posey. 

“ I should think you ’d know without 
askin’,” Mrs. Slocum replied. “ They ain’t 
but four unmarried men in Pocahontas, 
and you might know it ain’t Mr. Willy 
Posey, nor Little Hanse Brown, nor yet 
Crick Ned Wilkins, who ’s still a-hidin’ 
himself away because of the lost love of 
his youth.” 

Mrs. Posey thought for a moment; then 
she started, clucked, and looked sharply 
at her sister. “ Sissy,” she said, sternly, 
“you don’t mean to tell me it’s the 
minister? ” 

Mrs. Slocum nodded. “ Yes, it is.” 

212 




ZEBEDEE V 

For a few minutes Mrs. Aaron’s feel- 
ings were stronger than her powers of 
utterance. Mrs. Slocum went on : “ It ’s 
the minister. That ’s jest exactly who 
it is.” 

“Well,” said Mrs. Posey, “a body 
cain’t rightly object to his perfession, I 
suppose ; but to think of a Higgins 
a-fallin’ in love with that little spindly- 
legged, weak-chinned, yeller-haired man 
like the minister is almost more than 
flesh can bear. It don’t seem like it can 
be true.” 

“ It ’s true, all right. I ain’t sayin’ it 
ain’t hard for you, too,” said Mrs. Slo- 
cum, “but jest put yourself in my place! 
I got to have it morning, noon, and night ! 
They ’s a letter tucked away in some new 
place every night, so ’s to surprise her in 
the mornin’; then after breakfast he 
comes in for a spell, and that sets the 
213 


ZEBEDEE V 


work back. Then in the evenin’ they 
goes ridin’, ef he can borrer a buggy ; and 
every blessed night he sets up in my par- 
lor, right on that lavender-plush patent 
rocker I bought from Miss Lucy White’s 
auction. It ain’t the wear an’ tear I mind 
so much, either. It ’s bein’ woke out of 
my first sleep with her a-creakin’ up stairs. 
Land, I been thankin’ my Maker for 
years I didn’t have any child’en, and 
could excape the courtin’ stage; and now 
here I got to go through with it from my 
own sister.” 

“And her a Higgins,” said Mrs. Aaron, 
from her pillow. “ Well, Sissy, they ain’t 
but one thing to do, and that is to get her 
married and off your hands and on to the 
minister’s as soon as possible.” 

“ D’ you suppose I ain’t tried to?” 
asked Mrs. Slocum, with an injured air. 
“ That was the very first thing I thought 
214 


ZEBEDEE V 


of, and I told her so. But she says — 
‘ Oh, Sissy, dear Charles is so bashful/ 
and that ’s all the good it done. Dear 
Charles is still a-comin’ to the point far ’s 
I know. Land knows, he gets enough 
encouragement.” 

“ Bashful ! ” snorted Mrs. Posey. “ Ef 
I was a man, which I thank my stars I 
ain’t, I ’d up and ask him his intentions, 
that ’s what I ’d do. But I reckon a lady 
cain’t very well do that. Bashful ! I sh’d 
think he ’d oughter be, with them spindly 
legs. And her a Higgins ! ” 


215 


XVIII 

The dry air of early September is good 
for rheumatism, and on the first day that 
Mrs. Aaron was able to get out into the 
sitting-room Mr. Willy Posey came to see 
her, brimming with news. 

“ Why, good evenin’, Cousin Annie 
Lee,” he exclaimed, with pleasant empha- 
sis. “ I certainly am mighty glad to see 
you. Seems like more ’n a year sence 
you been sick ! ” 

Mrs. Posey looked pleased. “ Yes, it 
cert’n’y does to me,” she said. “ How ’s 
your own health, Cousin Willy?” 

“ Real tol’able, thank you, ma’am. I 
ain’t so much as had a cold, drivin’ around 
in all that wet spell. Yes ’m, things been 
216 


ZEBEDEE V 


real sprightly in Pocahontas here lately, 
Cousin Annie Lee.” 

“ That so?” asked Mrs. Aaron, in 
comfortable anticipation. 

“ Yes ’m,” said Mr. Willy. “ I reckon 
you heard about the tournament ? ” 

“ No, I have n’t,” said Mrs. Aaron. 
“ Not a word. Mr. Posey ’s been off elec- 
tionin’ every blessed day. When men 
gets started off on politics, they ain’t room 
in their minds for anything else; and 
Sissy ’s been right here with me. I sh’d 
like to know how I ’m to know what ’s 
goin’ on!” Mrs. Posey was evidently 
voicing an old injury. 

Mr. Willy moved his rocker close to 
hers. “ Well ’m,” he said, “ politics has 
been right lively around here lately. 
They ’re beginnin’ real early this year. 
I suppose you heard who ’s up for Demo- 
cratic candidate? ” 


217 


ZEBEDEE V 


“ I ain’t heard a thing,” said Mrs. 
Aaron. 

“ Did n’t they tell you about the plas- 
terin’ of the church a-fallin’ down last 
Wednesday night right after Endeavor 
meetin’, and it might ’a’ killed somebody? ” 

Mrs. Aaron drew a deep breath, and 
set her lips. She was not going to admit 
again that she had heard none of the 
neighborhood news, but she was deter- 
mined visibly if not audibly to express her 
sense of injury. 

Mr. Willy’s face and voice were full of 
sympathy. “Well, I declare,” he said. 
“ I would n’t ’a’ thought it of ’em. How ’d 
they expect a body to get up outen a bed 
of sickness without nothin’ to take up 
their minds ? I certainly don’t think that ’s 
the right way to treat you, Cousin Annie 
Lee! I certainly don’t.” 

Mrs. Aaron stirred. “ Well,” she 
218 


ZEBEDEE V 


snapped, “ I don't see 's you 're a-doin’ 
much better yourself ! " 

“Oh!" Mr. Willy exclaimed and 
jumped. “ Yes 'm. I was startin' to tell 
you about the tournament, was n't I ? 
But you said you did n't know who 's up 
for Democratic candidate." Mrs. Posey 
jerked her head, and Mr. Willy went on, 
feeling his way. “Well'm, they didn't 
seem like they 's very many hereabouts 
with much time to spare, and at the same 
time with a takin' way with 'em; and of 
course you know, Cousin Annie Lee, thet 
ef they 's one thing in politics more valu- 
able then any other, it is havin’ a takin' 
way ! Now ain't that so ? " 

Mrs. Aaron looked at him piercingly; 
there was no need for her to ask. 

“ Yes 'm," said Mr. Willy. “ I reckon 
you guessed it. It 's Zebedee V. ! " 

“ My land ! You 'd think that man was 
219 


ZEBEDEE V 


the Lord’s anointed, the way the other 
men keeps on a-settin’ their faith in him ! ” 
said Mrs. Aaron. 

“ Yes ’m,” Mr. Willy went on, “ he ’s 
up for it, and I reckon it ’s a-goin’ to be 
a right lively campaign. They ’s been 
bonfires already, and I never knew ’em to 
begin them so quick. Mr. Harrison Cleg- 
git from over yonder by Joppa’s up against 
him, and last week he hired an excursion 
boat and give a steamboat ride down the 
Susquehanna to Betterton. It was a real 
pleasant occasion, I been told ; but cornin’ 
home the boat run her nose on to them 
duckin’ grounds, and time they got home 
for breakfast next mornin’ Mr. Harrison 
Cleggit’s constituents was right mad, 
some of ’em. Yes ’m. Of course we all 
— er — ah — I — I mean them that ’s man- 
agin’ the campaign for Zebedee V. — has 
got to get up somethin’ hereabouts to beat 
220 


ZEBEDEE V 


that excursion. Zebedee V. he stood up 
in the store the other night an’ made a 
speech, and said as how he was always 
the one to feel for all needy obje'ts, and 
he wished to express his desire that what- 
ever was give for him had oughter be give 
for some worthy charity likewise. Yes 'm. 
He certainly did speak real noble. ,, 

Mrs. Aaron thought for a moment, 
and then said, “ Land ! that ain't jest 
common sense ! It 's slyness, that 's what 
it is. I sh'd think anybody could see 
through that ! It 's Zebedee V. Slocum's 
slyness ! " 

Few see into the heart of things as does 
Mrs. Aaron Posey; Mr. Willy missed the 
point and stared, but after a moment con- 
tinued his narrative. 

“ Well 'm, the upshot of it was thet it 
was decided then and there to give a tour- 
nament for the benefit of the plasterin', 
221 


ZEBEDEE V 


so ’s Zebedee V. could present the prizes 
and thereby have a chanct to make a 
speech. Yes ’m.” 

“ There! What ’d I tell you?’’ said 
Mrs. Aaron. “ It ’s fame and notoriety 
he ’s after, not charity for others. When 
they goin’ to have the tournament? ” 

“ Next Saturday evenin’ at three 
o’clock,” said Mr. Willy. “ They got the 
arches up now. They ’s to be three of 
’em, about twenty feet apart, with three 
rings a-hangin’ down from each one. 
They got the platform for the ladies up 
near the church steps, and they goin’ to 
use that wide space in front for the listin’ 
ground. Everybody thet rides has the 
right to place his chosen lady on the stand, 
and the knight thet gets the whole nine o’ 
the rings on his lance has the right to 
crown the queen o’ love and beauty. Him 
thet comes second chooses the first maid 


222 


ZEBEDEE V 


of honor, and him thet comes along after 
the second chooses the other one. And 
they ’s to be a purse for the winner — 
maybe as much as four dollars. Yes ’m. 
I reckon it 'll be a real bright occasion.” 

“ Why, yes,” said Mrs. Posey; she was 
smiling as one smiles at old sweet dreams. 
“ We all ain’t had a tournament here- 
abouts for goodness knows how long. 
First time I ever took to Mr. Posey was 
at a tournament. Land! I wonder how 
he ’d look now with a long ostrich plume 
in the side of his hat, and a Roman sash 
tied acrost him ! ” 

“ The costumes is goin’ to be real nice 
this time, I been told. Mr. Frank Slo- 
cum goes as the Knight of St. Mary’s 
Hill, and he ’s a-goin’ to wear white 
feathers in his hat and white rosettes 
pinned on him. Mr. Moses Cary ’s goin’ 
as the Knight of Rosemead, and he ’s got 
223 


ZEBEDEE V 


a great big bunch o’ pink and red roses 
for the front of his hat, and another bunch 
to wear on his breast, and yet another for 
between his horse’s years. Little Hanse 
Brown ’s goin’ as the Knight O’ June’s 
Delight, and he ’s got a whole bunch of 
ostrich plumes for his hat ; he ’s goin’ to 
borrer his ma’s garden hat, and wear it 
turned up on the side with the feathers 
attached. He ’s got a yeller swaller-tail 
coat he used in some tableaux whilst he ’s 
at the Agricultcheal College. I reckon 
Little Hanse ’ll take the shine offen most 
everybody else. Yes ’m.” 

“ You goin’ to tilt? ” asked Mrs. Aaron, 
all benevolence. 

“ Who? Me? No, ma’am,” replied 
Mr. Willy. “ I don’t believe in encour- 
agin’ the ladies, myself; and besides, I 
lent Alexander to Zebedee V. I told him 
she ’s right smart of a horse to manage, 
224 


ZEBEDEE V 


and I would n't be held responsible for 
any damage she done to him, but he ’s 
welcome to ride her, for the good o' the 
cause, ef his winnin’ the tournament would 
help him into th’ Assembly. Yes ’m. I 
ain’t never gone back on the Democratic 
party yet, and I ain’t never goin’ to. So 
I lent him Alexander.” 

When the day of the tournament came, 
Mrs. Posey insisted that she was well 
enough to sit alone, and that Mr. Posey 
should take Sissy to see the tilting of the 
knights. The ladies had talked it over 
before, and it seemed well to both of them 
that some responsible and sensible member 
of the family should be on hand “ to watch 
out thet Julia behaves herself.” Mrs. 
Aaron’s parting injunctions to her sister 
had been : 

“ And ef Julia drives up with the min- 
225 


ZEBEDEE V 


ister, you call her over like you wanted to 
fix her placket, and don’t you let go of her 
again.” 

The day was as hot as only early Sep- 
tember can be ; there had been no rain for 
weeks, and although she had heard that 
the managers of the tournament were to 
sprinkle the road and listing ground with 
the minister’s watering can, Mrs. Posey 
watched the dust raised by her husband’s 
departing Dayton with a thought of 
thanking her stars that she was n’t called 
on to ride in that tournament. She spent 
the afternoon picturing it in her imagina- 
tion, however, and in thinking about the 
tournaments of bygone days. It was 
towards six o’clock when she heard the 
returning wheels, and looked expectantly 
towards the door. To her surprise and 
consternation it was opened not by Mr. 
Aaron but by Mr. Willy Posey, who half 
226 


ZEBEDEE V 


led, half carried, and wholly steered the 
weeping Mrs. Slocum. 

Mrs. Aaron tried to rise from her chair, 
and turned pale. “ Land o’ Goshen ! ” she 
exclaimed. “ What ’s the matter ? Don’t 
tell me Mr. Posey ’s broke his leg! ” 

Mrs. Slocum moved her head nega- 
tively, and Mr. Willy said reassuringly — 
“ No, indeedy, they ain’t one thing the 
matter. Miss Sissy ’s jest overcome. 
Don’t you worry, Cousin Annie Lee. 
Cousin Aaron had to stay to talk about 
some election details. They ain’t anything 
the matter with him! ” 

He helped Mrs. Slocum to his own fa- 
vorite rocker, and brought her a glass of 
water from the kitchen. Mrs. Aaron 
watched them with anxiety until Mrs. Slo- 
cum mopped her eyes and began to untie 
her bonnet. Mr. Willy still hovered over 
her. 

227 


ZEBEDEE V 


“ When you come to entirely,” sug- 
gested Mrs. Aaron, “ maybe you ’ll tell me 
what all this fuss is about.” 

Mr. Willy smiled, and brought a 
straight chair from against the wall. Mrs. 
Slocum was sniffing occasionally, but it 
was evident that the business of rolling 
her bonnet strings was putting her troubles 
out of her mind. 

“ Well, Cousin Annie Lee,” Mr. Willy 
said at last, cheerfully smiling, “ it passed 
all expectations! Yes’m! It certainly 
did!” 

“ Hum,” sniffed Mrs. Posey. Mrs. Slo- 
cum drew down the corners of her mouth 
and mopped her eyes. 

“ It was grand,” said Mr. Willy. “ It 
certainly was grand. Cousin Aaron and 
Mis’ Slocum drove up jest as the knights 
was linin’ up, so they had to set in the 
buggy tell it was all over. That ’s how 
228 


ZEBEDEE V 


come Miss Sissy feels so bad — not bein’ 
right on hand when it happened.” 

“What happened?” demanded Mrs. 
Aaron sharply; she was almost beyond 
further endurance. 

“ Well ’m, I tell you how it was,” said 
Mr. Willy. “ It was a mighty good 
tournament. They was seven knights 
in line, and they all had feathers and 
sashes real proper, and their poles was 
painted the same color of their sashes, 
too. They certainly did look elegant. 
Elegant. 

“ Of course they had to ride at a cer- 
tain rate of speed ; and I must say I ’s 
real proud of Alexander, ef she is my 
mare. Zebedee V. he told me beforehan’, 
he says, ‘ Say, Willy, d’ you suppose I can 
stay on at that rate of speed ? ’ I says, 
£ Laws, yes, Z. V. Alexander ’s fast, but 
she ’s kind ; and all you got to do is to give 
229 


ZEBEDEE V 


her her head,’ I says. He says, ‘ I ’m 
willin’ to give her her head, ef she ’ll leave 
me mine. Politics is right costly, ain’t 
it? ’ But when the time come, you ’d think 
Alexander was born an’ brought up on 
tournaments. They was n’t ary one o’ the 
other horses could touch her. You could 
see thet white tail o’ hers a-standin’ out 
like the tail of a comet, she ’s goin’ so fast. 
Zebedee V. jest could n’t help catchin’ 
them nine rings, riding Alexander; and 
they was n’t ary one o’ the other knights 
took more ’n seven. 

“ Well, ma’am, I jest tell you, enthusi- 
asm riz to quite a pitch when Alexander 
and Zebedee V. rode up to the ladies’ stand 
with the wreath o’ dahlias on the end of 
his spear. Yes ’m. Zebedee V. took off 
his hat — he had on that long purple plume 
his second wife wore in her weddin’ bon- 
net, and it looked real nice in his big wide 
230 



“You’d think Alexander was born an’ brought up 
on tournaments ” 

Page 2jo 









ZEBEDEE V 


hat; and he wheeled Alexander around 
and made a speech. Yes ’m.” 

“ Of course he did,” said Mrs. Aaron. 
“Trust him to make a speech. That’s 
him all over again.” 

“Yes’m,” said Mr. Willy. “Well, I 
can’t jest remember every word he said, 
notwithstandin’ the impression it made 
on my mind ; but he said he ’s more ’n 
glad to be able to welcome the youth and 
beauty of our fair country to sech a fes- 
tive occasion. He said it was n’t more ’n 
right and proper that they should emu- 
late the acts of the chivalric knights of 
long ago, sence all the chivalry of the days 
long past was n’t by no means dead, as 
he meant to prove. Said it give him most 
pleasure of all to meet and mingle with 
the fair maidens and dames without 
whose presence the best decorated place 
would be but a barren waste, and any 
231 


ZEBEDEE V 


tourney a dismal failure. Said he knew 
he ’d be allowed to say that they was no 
finer sight to be had then the sight of sech 
feats of horsemanship and skill as had 
been exhibited this evenin’, and that it 
was a long sight better ’n goin’ off on a 
crowded steamboat and gettin’ stuck in 
a mud bank. 

“ Said he was n’t there, however, to 
point to the failures of others, but to the 
success of the present tournament, and 
that it was his held-fast opinion thet they 
could n’t be any real success in life with- 
out a flavorin’ of love, both in gen’ral and 
in partic’lar. Said they was all aware thet 
this tournament was held for the sole and 
only purpose of raisin’ the money to plaster 
the church anew; and therefore it give 
him real and genuwine pleasure to present 
for that purpose the purse that he was 
entitled to as winner. Yes ’m.” 

232 


ZEBEDEE V 


“ Hum/’ said Mrs. Aaron, “ seems to 
me it was a long sight better to give it to 
the plasterin' then to politics." 

“ Well, he give it," said Mr. Willy, and 
continued. “ Then he called to me to help 
him down offen Alexander, which I did. 
Then Zebedee V. took up the wreath o’ 
dahlias, and mounted to the platform 
where the ladies set. He said to the as- 
sembled company, when they got done 
cheerin', that he hoped they 'd all bear 
with him whilst he still further expressed 
his views. Said he always was ready and 
willin’ to help them thet needed help, and 
that he had one friend among the com- 
pany who seemed to need assistance about 
as bad as any he 'd ever known. Said it 
was jest in the line where he felt hi’self 
most expert, too, havin' had a rich and 
varied experience therein. Said that kind 
of business was generally attended to by 
233 


ZEBEDEE V 


the little god Cupid, but he ’s as willin’ 
to lend Cupid a helpin’ hand as he was to 
lend courage to the minister. 

“ Thereupon, Cousin Annie Lee, he 
turned around with a bow and presented 
the wreath to Miss Julia Higgins, and 
said, says he, ‘ Allow me, fair lady, to 
crown you Queen of Love and Beauty, in 
the name of our respected and looked- 
up-to minister, the Reverend Mr. Charles 
Bean ! ’ 

“And then he turned around again, 
and before anybody could recover, he 
called out ‘ Ef the minister from Joppa, 
the Reverend Gorsich, will step forwards, 
we ’ll have the weddin’ here and now.’ 
Which they did. Yes ’m.” 

Mrs. Slocum was holding her handker- 
chief to her eyes, and for once in her life 
Mrs. Aaron was too surprised to have 
anything to say. Mr. Willy enjoyed the 
234 


ZEBEDEE V 

situation for a few minutes, and then 
said, 

“ Yes ’m. We ’s all right smart sur- 
prised. We certainly were. Zebedee V. 
told me afterwards he reckoned he ’d 
brought down the bird, so to speak, o’ the 
votes o’ the county, ’cause it was n’t 
likely that the other candidates could 
work up a reputation for helpin’ along 
matrimony that a way. Yes ’m.” 

Mrs. Slocum sniffed audibly. Mrs. 
Aaron Posey looked at her, and said 
sternly: 

“ For goodness sake, Sissy, do have 
some sense. It ain’t a disgrace to have 
a minister in the family.” 


235 


XIX 

“ It was a very pleasant affair indeed/' 
said Mrs. Aaron Posey to her sister, Mrs. 
Slocum, a month or so after the famous 
tournament. “ Flora might be expected 
to do things right." 

“ Yes," assented Mrs. Slocum, “ it was 
most pleasant. I noticed the jelly-cake 
was made after Mis' Frank Cary's re- 
ceipt. Mis’ Frank Cary did n't seem very 
well pleased, for anybody could see that 
Flora beat her on her own cake." 

“ So she did," said Mrs. Posey. “ The 
fried chicken, though, was queer, to say 
the least of it. I never saw chicken cut 
up that way before ; its own grandmother 
would n’t 'a' recognized it. That 's where 
236 


ZEBEDEE V 


bein’ a Westerner shows, in things like 
that. I should n’t wonder if the sister 
cut it up.” 

“ Yes, I took note of it,” admitted Mrs. 
Slocum. “ It tasted about as good, 
though, I reckon. D’ you suppose she 
uses half-and-half for her ice cream?” 

“ Um-m-m,” said Mrs. Posey, “ no 
tellin’. Flora knows how to manage. The 
sister don’t look so smart. Queer thing 
how one person in a family generally gets 
most all the sense.” 

Mrs. Sissy drew in her chin and said 
nothing, but Mrs. Aaron went on uncon- 
cernedly. “ That mat embroidered in 
strawberries and wild roses was real 
pretty — the one on the dining-room 
table. I reckon the sister runs to art 
more ’n to housekeepin’. She don’t re- 
semble Flora very much, for a twin.” 

“ What do you suppose made ’em call 
237 


ZEBEDEE V 


it a tea? ” asked Mrs. Slocum. “ Lemon- 
ade was all I got, and Miss Wilkins called 
that fruit punch. I wish you could ’a’ 
seen the minister when she asked him to 
have some. He got as red as a turkey- 
cock, and then when he saw what it really 
was, he had a dreadful time tryin’ to get 
a hold of some without Miss Wilkins 
noticin , . ,, 

“ Pore young man,” said Mrs. Posey, 
“ he ’s got a lot to learn, ef he is my 
brother-in-law and Julia’s own husband.” 

The ladies were discussing the party 
given the evening before by Mrs. Zebedee 
V. Slocum for her sister, who had come 
from the West on a visit, and in honor 
of the minister and his bride. 

“ I don’t think I ever saw puffs like 
hers before. I was in fear and tremblin’ 
the whole evenin’ lessen they should fall 
off. It stands to reason they did n’t grow 
238 


ZEBEDEE V 


on her head. If that ’s Western style I 
thank my stars I was born in Pocahontas/’ 

“ The gentlemen seemed to take to her 
right smart,” suggested Mrs. Slocum. 

“ Oh,” said Mrs. Aaron, “ there ain’t 
a man made but what ’ll run after a new 
face, exceptin’ them that ’s held well in 
hand by some woman with common 
sense.” 

“ I don’t think there ’s much in Ala- 
meda Wilkins’s face to attract the eye of 
anybody,” said Mrs. Slocum. 

“ Land,” said Mrs. Aaron, “ you cain’t 
tell by that. D’ you ever see a good- 
lookin’ man with a pretty wife, or a 
handsome woman with a handsome hus- 
band? Never! It don’t go that a 
way. Look at Mr. Posey. As I often 
tell him, they never was a good-lookin’ 
Posey.” 

“ Then accordin’ to that,” suggested 
239 


ZEBEDEE V 


Mrs. Slocum, “ Mr. Willy Posey oughten 
to take to Alameda Wilkins/’ 

“ He did n’t,” said Mrs. Posey, posi- 
tively. “ She took to him. That ain’t the 
same thing. A woman ’ll take to most 
any kind of a man, especially when she 
gets to the age where it ’s hopin’ against 
hope.” 

“ Well,” said Mrs. Slocum, “ I don’t 
call it genteel to set up to anybody like 
she did to Mr. Willy Posey. I saw her 
take him two plates of ice cream with her 
own hands, and she asked him right be- 
fore everybody what he did with the wish- 
bone of his chicken.” 

“ It was n’t his fault,” asserted Mrs. 
Aaron. “ Cousin Willy is a man, I ’ll ad- 
mit ; but he ’s got a little more common 
sense than most. It was Zebedee V. Slo- 
cum that done it.” 

“ No, he did n’t either,” declared Mrs. 

240 


ZEBEDEE V 


Slocum, with some spirit. “ I saw her 
hand it to him with my own eyes.” 

“ For the land’s sake, Sissy, do have 
some sense,” exclaimed Mrs. Aaron im- 
patiently. “ Can’t you listen to what a 
body says? I tell you, it was Zebedee V. 
Slocum that threw ’em together. You 
mark my words, that man ’s got some 
scheme on hand.” 

Mrs. Aaron was not greatly mistaken, 
although for a week or so she did not 
have the satisfaction of certainty. The 
next afternoon, when Mr. Willy came 
with the mail, he was looking unusually 
rosy and bright, and his smile was more 
fixed than ever. 

“ Why, good evenin’, Cousin Annie 
Lee,” he chirped. “ Have a nice time at 
the tea ? ” 

Mrs. Posey looked at him over her 
241 


ZEBEDEE V 


glasses ; he was standing awkwardly near 
the door, his favorite rocker apparently 
not tempting him. He had the manner 
of one prepared for immediate flight. 

“ Yes, real nice,” said Mrs. Aaron. 
“ Thank you for askin’. You did n’t 
seem much concerned over anybody’s good 
time while you was there but Alameda 
Wilkinses.” 

Mr. Willy blushed and smiled. 
“ Well ’m, I thought it was n’t more ’n 
polite to show some attention to the lady 
the party was give for,” he said. 
“ Yes ’m .” 

“ Well, you showed it,” said Mrs. 
Aaron. “ You showed it plain. Why 
didn’t you show some to the minister or 
Julia?” 

Mr. Willy giggled. “ Reckon I better 
be goin’,” he said, and fled. 

The next time he appeared, Mr. Willy 
242 


ZEBEDEE V 

opened the door of the sitting-room and 
handed in the newspaper. He seemed 
about to do the same thing on the fol- 
lowing day, but Mrs. Aaron was never 
caught unprepared a second time. She 
held the door firmly open, determination 
in the grip of her hand, suspicion in her 
eye, and displeasure in the set of her 
lips. 

“ What ’s your hurry? ” she asked. 

“ Ma’am? ” queried Mr. Willy. 

“ I said what ’s your hurry,” Mrs. Posey 
repeated. “ Your hear in’ gettin’ bad 
again ? ” 

“ Ain’t any hurry,” said Mr. Willy. “ I 
jest thought I would n’t stop this evenin’.” 

“ What you got the curtains of your 
Dayton down for?” Mrs. Aaron de- 
manded. 

Mr. Willy closed one eye and looked up 
at the cloudless sky. “ Well ’m, I thought 
243 


ZEBEDEE V 

it looked kinder sprinkly when I started. 
Yes ’m.” 

“ Hum/’ said Mrs. Aaron, and shut the 
door with a bang. 

The next afternoon she came around 
the corner of the house, quite accidentally, 
as Mr. Willy drove up, so that she unavoid- 
ably faced the Dayton and the two people 
in it. Mr. Willy hopped out at once, and 
began to busy himself with the straps that 
passed under the horse. The lady, how- 
ever, smiled and bowed. 

“ Good afternoon, Mrs. Posey,” she 
said. “ How do you do? ” 

“ My health ’s as usual, thank you,” 
said Mrs. Aaron. “ Won’t you come in 
while Cousin Willy mends his harness? ” 

Mr. Willy straightened himself; he 
was very red. “ It was jest twisted,” he 
said. “ Reckon we better not stop this 
evenin’.” 


244 


ZEBEDEE V 


They drove off, and Mrs. Posey, with 
set lips, looked after the retreating wagon. 
As she went into the house she said to 
herself, “ I suppose they ’re bound to get 
took sooner or later. No more ’n you can 
expect of a man.” 

Mr. Willy knew that it would be unwise 
to allow many days to pass without mak- 
ing his usual afternoon call on Mrs. 
Aaron, and a day or two afterwards he 
came in with his most youthful manner, 
but with a smile that was, perhaps, a little 
forced. 

“ Why, good evenin’, Cousin Annie 
Lee,” he exclaimed, as if he had not ex- 
pected to see her. “ Seems like quite a 
while since I saw you.” 

Had Mr. Willy been less perturbed he 
would not have made such a remark; Mrs. 
Aaron took immediate advantage of it. 

245 


ZEBEDEE V 


“ Well, whose fault ’s that, please tell 
me ? I been here steady. Them that 
wants to see me knows where to find me.” 

“ Yes ’m,” said Mr. Willy, “ yes ’m. I 
reckon it ’s been me. I been mighty occu- 
pied here lately.” 

“ Hum,” said Mrs. Aaron, “ I hope you 
enjoyed it.” 

“ Ma’am?” 

“ I said I hope you enjoyed it. You 
know what I ’m talking about as well as 
I do. They ain’t any use makin’ believe 
you don’t.” 

“ Well ’m,” said Mr. Willy boldly, “ you 
oughter know ’s well ’s anybody else, 
Cousin Annie Lee, thet I enjoy the com- 
pany of the ladies, and always did.” 

“ It seems to be growin’ on you,” said 
Mrs. Posey. “ I always say they ’s no 
fool like an old fool, and I suppose you 
won’t deny you ’re cornin’ on in years.” 

246 


ZEBEDEE V 


“ It ’s the heart that keeps a man 
young,” said Mr. Willy, with dignity. 
“ A man ain’t any older ’n he feels.” 

“ That so ? ” asked Mrs. Aaron. “ I 
suppose you think of engagin’ Miss Ala- 
meda Wilkins to wheel you aroun’ in a 
go-cart ! ” 

“ No, ma’am,” said Mr. Willy, his face 
flushing. “ Miss Wilkins prefers my 
Dayton. Good evenin’ ; I gotter be 
goin’.” 


247 


XX 


Mrs. Aaron was in quite a state of 
mind. Seldom had she been so thoroughly 
amused, and at the same time deeply ex- 
asperated. It was disconcerting, to say 
the least, that Cousin Willy, whose alle- 
giance had been a matter of years, should 
fall in love at his time of life, and fall in 
love so foolishly. But of course she 
blamed it all upon Zebedee V. 

After all, nothing better could be ex- 
pected of Mr. Willy in the face of such 
temptation ; but Zebedee V. had had 
experience enough for anything, and of 
course he was urging Willy into it, into 
— so she indignantly told herself — his 
very undoing. She considered Zebedee V. 
even more to blame than the temptress 
248 


ZEBEDEE V 


herself; for when a woman reaches the 
age of Flora’s sister, no other woman 
could blame her for wanting to settle in 
life; indeed, Mrs. Aaron thought that 
admirable common sense on Alameda’s 
part. 

She was too loyal to her most confiden- 
tial friend to discuss the state of his heart 
with anyone; even Mr. Posey was se- 
verely snubbed whenever he broached the 
subject. Sometimes, when Mr. Aaron 
came back from the store all smiles and 
subdued chuckles, it was almost more 
than she could do not to ask him all 
about it; but pride and loyalty, and 
perhaps something else, restrained her. 
Mr. Posey did not mind the snubbing; 
he perfectly well knew how much her 
silence cost her. 

Yet somehow rumors reached her of 
Zebedee V.’s great interest in the course 
249 


ZEBEDEE V 


of true love, and even some of his remarks 
upon it came back to her. Flora brought 
Miss Wilkins out to the farm to call, and 
Mrs. Aaron was most polite; Zora came 
to spend the day, all dimples and smiles 
at the absurdity of Aunt Allie and Uncle 
Willy taking to each other that way; but 
Mrs. Aaron would not be drawn into 
questions or expressions of her own 
opinion. Mr. Willy took to leaving 
the mail at the front door, or handing 
it to his cousin Aaron at the barn; a 
week or two passed without Mrs. 
Posey’s having had any conversation with 
him. 

Then, one dreary, drizzling afternoon, 
when she thought it too late for the mail, 
and was saying to herself that “ Mr. 
Posey ” would “ ketch his death o’ cold, 
bein’ out this late in the wet,” she heard 
a timid, faltering step on her side porch. 

250 


ZEBEDEE V 


Holding her darning in her apron, she 
went to open the door, and was amazed to 
behold Mr. Willy standing there, looking 
as dejected as his round, rosy face would 
permit. 

“ For the land's sake," she exclaimed, 
“ what 's the matter ? What 's the matter ? 
Don't tell me it 's Mr. Posey? " 

Mr. Willy shifted his weight from one 
foot to the other. Mrs. Aaron grabbed 
his arm, her darning gourd and several 
rolls of stockings falling to the floor 
unnoticed. 

“ If it 's Mr. Posey, I want to know the 
worst at once," she said. “ Don’t stand 
there gairpin' ! " 

Mr. Willy shook his head. “ No, 
ma'am," he said, feebly. “ I jest saw 
Cousin Aaron out to the barn. It ain’t 
him. It — it 's me." 

Mrs. Aaron glared at Mr. Willy for a 

251 


ZEBEDEE V 


full minute, and if looks could petrify, 
poor Mr. Willy would have become a 
statue of woe on the instant. Then she 
turned and stalked into the room, and Mr. 
Willy followed her, picking up the gourd 
from where it had rolled under the table. 
He stood in front of her with timidly 
drooping shoulders. 

“ Set down/’ snapped Mrs. Aaron. 
“ What ’s come over you? ” 

Mr. Willy sighed audibly, and drew up 
a small straight chair, it was evident that 
he was in no mood to-day for the comfort 
of a rocker. 

“ You got malaria ? ” asked Mrs. Aaron, 
heartlessly. 

Mr. Willy sadly shook his head, and 
sighed again. “ No, ma’am/’ he said, 
humbly. 

Mrs. Aaron peered at him over her 
glasses. “ Well,” she said, “ you look to 
252 


ZEBEDEE V 


me like you ’re cornin’ down with some- 
thin’. Does your head ache? ” 

Again Mr. Willy replied, dejectedly, 
“ No, ma’am.” 

“ Oh,” said Mrs. Aaron, as if the idea 
had just come to her, “ I forgot. You 
been gettin’ young again! Maybe it’s 
measles ! ” 

Poor Mr. Willy drooped still more, 
rubbed his hands over one another, and 
gazed out at the cheerless drizzle. “I — 
I got a right smart on my mind,” he said. 

“ Thinkin’ about the cares of a family? ” 
asked Mrs. Aaron, pitilessly. 

He could not reply at once; then, with 
an evident effort, he edged his chair nearer 
to hers, and asked in a low, trembling 
voice : 

“ Cousin Annie Lee, how much is 
bindin’?” 

Mrs. Aaron Posey looked surprised. 

253 


ZEBEDEE V 

“ Bindin’ ? ” she repeated. “ What kind 
o’ bindin’ ? ” 

Mr. Willy blushed deeply. “ No, 
ma’am ; that ain’t what I mean. I mean, 
how much does it take to make a man 
bound ? I mean — well — yes ’m.” 

Mrs. Aaron still looked bewildered. 
“Bound to what? What on earth you 
drivin’ at?” 

Mr. Willy swallowed several times, and 
blinked as if tears were imminent. 
“ Well,” he said at last, “ I ’ll tell you how 
it is, Cousin Annie Lee. It ’s this a way. 
You know very well I always have 
friendly feelin’s towards all and malice 
towards none; but sometimes it certainly 
does seem like that ought to be turned 
around the other way. Yes ’m. You 

know very well, and I don’t care ef it ain’t 
my place to say it, that I been known all 
my life as ready and willin’ to have a 
254 


ZEBEDEE V 


pleasant time, and to give a pleasant time 
to others. Yes ’m. I have so. And Zeb- 
edee V. Slocum, he knows that as well as 
any, and has good and sufficient reason 
to. Yes, ma’am, that he has. And, more- 
over, it ’s always been my disposition to 
trust them ’s I think my friends. And 
Zebedee V., he knows that, too; and I 
never would V been the one to think 
he ’d presume on it. No, ma’am, that I 
would n’t.” 

Mr. Willy paused; it was evident that 
his feelings were almost too much for 
him. Mrs. Aaron went on with her 
darning, and most unsympathetically 
remarked : 

“ I ’ve understood you to say that only 
the women are ever down on Zebedee V. 
Slocum, and that you never could see 
why!” 

“ Yes ’m,” admitted Mr. Willy. His 
255 


ZEBEDEE V 


spirit seemed utterly crushed; a retort 
was beyond him. “ I did so. I did so. 
Eh me! ” 

Mrs. Aaron was mollified. She said 
kindly, “ Well, Cousin Willy, I do hope 
you ain’t lent him any money.” 

“ No ’m ,” said Mr. Willy. “ I wish I 
had. Money would be cheap at any price, 
compared with this present trouble.” 

“ For goodness sake say what you got 
to say,” exclaimed Mrs. Aaron. “ Seems 
like you ’re bound to scare a body to 
death.” 

“ Well ’m, the beginnin’ of it was this. 
I was drivin’ along towards his house with 
the mail one day, and when I got most 
there, Zebedee V. come outen the bushes 
alongside the road, and he says, ‘ Say, 
Willy, you got any letters for — up 
there? ’ He pointed with his thumb back 
towards his house, and I knew he must 
256 


ZEBEDEE V 


mean Flora. I says ‘ Yes, they ’s one let- 
ter from her old home out West — Plum- 
tree, Indiana/ 

“ I had n’t scarcely gotten the words 
outen my mouth, when Zebedee V. he 
says, ‘ Oh, Lord! ’ and sets himself down 
on the side of the road, lookin’ like all the 
life been took outen him. I say, ‘ Laws, 
Z. V., what ’s the matter ? It ain’t any- 
body dead, is it ? ’ He shook his head real 
sad like, and he says, ‘ No, not dead. 
Livin’.’ I says, ‘ Well, whilst they ’s life 
they ’s hope, Z. V.,’ and he says, ‘ No, they 
ain’t, not in this case. You don’t know. 
I reckon nothin’ but a cyclone or a sun- 
stroke would keep one of that family from 
doin’ what they sets their minds on; and 
she ’s comin.’ I says, ‘ Who ’s a-comin’ ? ’ 
and he says, ‘ Her sister. Flora’s sister. 
And the good Lord knows what I ’m 
a-goin’ to do with two of ’em in the 
257 


ZEBEDEE V 


house/ Yes ’m. I certainly did feel real 
sorrerful for Zebedee V. I don’t know 
how ’s ever I did see a man as crushed as 
that before. Yes ’m.” 

Mrs. Aaron said, severely, “ That ’s a 
nice way to talk about your wife’s rela- 
tions, ain’t it ? ” 

Mr. Willy jumped at the suddenness of 
the imputation, and said hurriedly, “ Laws, 
Cousin Annie Lee, I ain’t got any wife 
and I don’t want any wife. I never did 
take to matrimony. Ef Zebedee V. had n’t 
’a’ got married, he would ’a’ been a freer 
and a happier man, too, pore soul. I jest 
tell you what it is, I certainly did feel for 
him that day. Yes ’m. I thought I jest 
had to say somethin’ to comfort him, and 
I says, ‘ Laws, Z. V., maybe she ain’t the 
same kind,’ I says. But Zebedee V. shook 
his head. ‘ I know the kind,’ he says. ‘ I 
know it well. And ef she once gets here, 

258 


ZEBEDEE V 


she ’ll stay. And the Lord knows how 
I ’m a-goin’ to bear it.’ 

“ Well ’m, I did n’t see any more of him 
tell after she got here, and then one night 
he come down to the store, and he called 
me out, real confidential, lookin’ right 
bright and happy. ‘ Say, Willy,’ he says, 
‘ come on up to my house. I want to 
make you acquainted with my sister-in- 
law.’ I says, ‘ I reckon I cain’t go up to- 
night, Z. V.,’ but he says, ‘ Oh, yes, you 
can; you look all right.’ You know Zebe- 
dee V. certainly has real persuadin’ ways 
with him; and first thing I knew, there I 
was. Miss Alameda ’s a-settin’ up in the 
parlor like she expected company, and I 
thought soon ’s the company come I could 
make my excuses and depart. But she 
certainly is real entertainin’, Miss Ala- 
meda is; it was long past eleven o’clock 
when I got home. 


259 


ZEBEDEE V 


“ The next time I saw any of ’em was 
at the tea, and Zebedee V. says to me, ‘ My 
sister-in-law ’s been wonderin’ what ’s 
become of you, Willy; I wisht you ’d pay 
her some little attention whilst she ’s here. 
You ’ve had experience enough with the 
fair sex to know that a little attention goes 
a long way towards cheerin’ ’em up ; and 
the more cheerin’ they gets, Willy, the 
more easy it is to get along with ’em. I 
wisht you ’d jest show her some little 
attention for my sake.’ He looked like a 
man thet has a good deal to bear, so I 
went over and talked to her some.” 

“ I should think you did,” remarked 
Mrs. Aaron. 

“ Yes ’m. I did. I did n’t mean nothin’ 
by so doin’; but as I was a-comin’ away, 
she took a holt of my hand real soft, 
and says, ‘ Oh, it ’s sweet to find your- 
self in sympathy with a noble soul ’ ; 

260 


ZEBEDEE V 

and I must say I felt real — real — oh, 
I dunno! 

“ I thought I might ’s well invite her to 
go drivin’ with me the next day, which I 
did ; and the day after that she ’s a-waitin’ 
with her hat on when I got to Zebedee V.’s 
house, and she says, ‘ I know you 'll be 
lonesome ef I don’t come to-day too!’ 
And I must say, it certainly was real 
pleasant like to have a fair companion on 
your daily rounds of duty; she’s real in- 
terested, too, in my house, and what I do, 
and all that. It certainly was real pleas- 
ant. Real pleasant.” 

“ With the curtains down!” said Mrs. 
Aaron. Mr. Willy blushed again, and 
hastily continued his story. 

“ One day she says to me, she says, ‘ I 
suppose them that ’s younger ’n us goes 
out to ride by moonlight, sometimes ’ ; and 
I says, ‘ Yes, miss, them as young as you 
261 


ZEBEDEE V 


do. Maybe you ’d like to take a ride in 
the moonlight to-night? ’ I says.” 

“ With — the — curtains — down ! ” re- 
peated Mrs. Aaron. 

“ Yes ’m,” said Mr. Willy, choking, 
quivering, tearful. “ That ’s jest what 
Zebedee V. says. He come up to me in the 
store yesterday mornin’, right while every- 
body ’s there, and he give me a thump be- 
twixt the shoulder-blades, and he says, 
‘ Good for you, Willy! I never would ’a’ 
thought it of you! You ’re sly, ain’t you? 
Good for you ! Haw haw ! ’ And every- 
body up and ast him what ’s the matter, 
and he said I ’d been out drivin’ by moon- 
light with his sister-in-law, with the cur- 
tains down, and that she come home — 
with — one — side — of her — face as 
red as red.” 

Mrs. Aaron looked at him piercingly 
over her glasses. “ Willy Posey,” she 
262 


ZEBEDEE V 


asked, with great severity, “ do you mean 
to tell me that at your time of life you 
made such a fool of yourself as to — ” 

Mr. Willy interrupted her. “ No, 
ma’am. No, ma’am, I did n’t. That ’s jest 
what I told ’em at the store, but they jest 
shouted. That ’s what they did. I never 
did feel so mortified in all my born days. 
And Zebedee V. was the worst o’ the lot. 
I never ’s so deceived in a friend before. 
He says, ‘ Oh, that ’s all right, Willy, 
that ’s all right. You got to say that on 
the lady’s account. But I reckon they 
ain’t ary man here but what ’ll give you 
credit enough to believe that you did n’t 
take a lady out on a moonlight drive with- 
out ’ — Oh-h-h!” groaned Mr. Willy, 
and buried his head in his hands. 

Mrs. Aaron smiled grimly, and bit her 
lip. “ It ’s plain to be seen what that 
man ’s up to,” she said, after a while. 

263 


ZEBEDEE V 


“ Yes ’m,” cried Mr. Willy. “ Yes ’m. 
It is” 

“ It ’s one of his schemes, that ’s what it 
is,” declared Mrs. Aaron. Mr. Willy drew 
out his handkerchief and held it to his eyes. 

“ How much is binding Cousin Annie 
Lee ? ” he once more besought her. 

“ Land,” said Mrs. Aaron, “ that much 
ain’t. Where ’ s your spunk ? Go to Zeb- 
edee V. Slocum and tell him right up and 
down that you would n’t marpy that 
woman if she ’s made of gold and precious 
stones, which she ain’t; and jest make 
him understand you say you won’t, and 
you won’t.” 

Mr. Willy groaned. Mrs. Posey con- 
tinued: “It ain’t like you’s a marryin’ 
man. Everybody hereabouts knows you 
never had any intention towards any 
woman ’t ever lived, and that you ’re too 
old to begin at this time o’ life.” 

264 


ZEBEDEE V 


Mr. Willy gulped. “ Yes ’m, I was 
fifty-four last Decoration Day. I ’m 
cornin’ on ! ” It was a pitiful admission. 

“ Well, jest keep your backbone in you, 
and tell him you won’t. That ’s all you 
can do, and ef you do it right it ’ll be 
enough. Show some common sense 
about it ! ” 


265 


XXI 


Mrs. Posey often smiled as she went 
about her work during the next few days ; 
but as the afternoons passed and she saw 
nothing of the postman she began to grow 
anxious. One day towards the end of the 
week, however, Mr. Willy opened the 
sitting-room door and walked in, wearing 
his rosiest smile and jauntiest air. He 
had a blossom in his buttonhole. 

“ Why, good evenin’, Cousin Annie 
Lee,” he said, in his old cheery way. 

“ I been wonderin’ about you,” said 
Mrs. Aaron Posey cordially, and smiled. 
“ Take a rocker, won’t you?” 

“ Yes ’m, thank you ma’am,” said Mr. 
Willy. “ I wanted to stop by yesterday, 
266 


ZEBEDEE V 

but I had to be in attendance on Zebe- 
dee V.” 

Mrs. Aaron frowned. Mr. Willy said 
quickly, “ That little matter I was askin’ 
you about the other day ’s all right. 
Yes ’m. Miss Alameda Wilkins has gone 
back out West.” 

“You don’t say!” Mrs. Posey ex- 
claimed. 

“ Yes ’m. I must say, I feel real bad 
when I remember what I said about bein’ 
deceived in Zebedee V. They never was 
a truer friend. No, ma’am. I went to 
him like you advised. At first he jest 
laughed; but when I finally got him to 
see thet I was in dead earnest and jest 
would n’t — would n’t — er — marry the 
lady, he says, ‘ Well,’ he says, ‘ they ’s jest 
this about it, Willy. I can’t have her in 
my house. I stood the poll-parrot, and I 
stood work ; I stood givin’ up smokin’, and 
267 


ZEBEDEE V 


I stood givin’ up goin’ to the store ; I stood 
wearin’ shirts she made that ’s too tight 
in the collar, and I stood bein’ put to bed 
and fed on slops every time I got a crick 
in my neck. I even stood her takin’ all 
my good money away from me. I stood 
all that, but I be — ’ ” Mr. Willy coughed. 
“ Yes ’m. I don’t like to repeat jest all he 
said. But he said it real strong and to 
the point. He said he could stand one 
Flora, she bein’ his own wedded wife; but 
he could n’t and would n’t stand two of 
her. He said, ‘ You come along into the 
house with me, Willy. I jest need the 
sight of you to make me remember that a 
man has his rights, howsoever he may 
feel towards them that 9 s his own to per- 
tect and govern.’ He says, ‘ I ’m the head 
of this family, and I reckon I ’ve let my 
lovin’ forbearance go jest about far 
enough.’ Yes ’m. That ’s what he said.” 

268 



“Zebedee V. stood in the middle o’ the floor with 
his arms folded” 

Page 2bq 





ZEBEDEE V 


“ Well ’m, we went in the house to- 
gether ; and they was several things said. 
Some of the children set to cryin’; and 
Flora, she — oh well, I never was one to 
go around repeatin’ things as oughter be 
kept in families, Cousin Annie Lee. Any- 
ways, Zebedee V. stood in the middle o’ 
the floor with his arms folded on his chest 
tell Miss Alameda Wilkins got her trunk 
packed, and then him and me drove her 
off to the station. She ’s cryin’ all the 
way down, but Z. V. says he reckons she ’ll 
get her cry out before she reaches 
Indiana.” 

Mrs. Aaron clucked; her expression 
was one of mingled satisfaction and dis- 
approval. “ Well,” she said, “ I ain’t 
deny in’ it ’s just as well that woman ’s 
gone back out West; but I must say I do 
think Zebedee V. Slocum might ’a’ be- 
haved a little mite kinder towards her. I 
269 


ZEBEDEE V 

cain’t imagine how Flora come to let him 
do so.” 

Mr. Willy chuckled a^d slapped his 
knee. 

“ Flora ain’t the head of that family 
no more, I ’m tellin’ ye ! I reckon Z. V. ’ll 
know how to keep Flora in place here- 
after. And that ain’t all! ” 

He paused. “ What ain’t?” Mrs. 
Aaron asked. 

“ Zora ’s married ! ” 

Mrs. Aaron precipitately arose from 
her chair, and as abruptly sat down again. 
She gasped. “ Zora ! ” she cried. “ Zora 
married? What you talkin’ about? Why 
Zora was up here only three — four 
days ago ! ” 

“ And yesterday she’s married! Yes, 
ma’am, that she was. I ’ll tell you how 
it happened. It was this a way. When 
me and Z. V. was a-comin’ from the sta- 
270 


ZEBEDEE V 


tion seem’ Miss Wilkins off, we met the 
doctor. I reckon Z. V. felt like tellin’ 
most everybody what had happened, and 
the more the merrier. Anyways, we 
stopped to talk to the doctor; and when 
Doc’ heard all about it, he jest laid his 
head back and roared. 

“ ‘ Mr. Slocum/ says he, ‘ you ’re the 
greatest man this side o’ Jordon/ says he; 
and Z. V. looks real pleased, 'cause they ’d 
been right smart of coolness betwixt the 
doctor and the Slocumses, ever sence Mis' 
Slocum put her foot down on Zora gettin’ 
married. 

“ Then the doctor, he says, ‘ So you 're 
the boss now, are ye? Well, Mr. Slocum, 
I ain’t denyin' it 's the man’s place to boss, 
and a good deal better for the women 
when they do; but if you’ll pardon my 
sayin’ so — seein’ 's believin’ ! ’ 

“ At that Zebedee V. he says, ‘ Doc, 
271 


ZEBEDEE V 


air you too busy this mornin’ to drive past 
the minister’s with me?’ 

“ Doc, he got as red as red, and then he 
got real white around the gills. But he 
kinder squinted at Zebedee V. to see what, 
he meant like, and says, ‘ No, sir, I ain’t 
too busy to drive by the minister’s with 
you ! ’ And then he shet his mouth real 
tight and close, and we all drove off, our 
team in the lead, to the minister’s. Z. V. 
got out and went inside; and pretty soon 
he come out and the minister was follerin’ 
him and lookin’ kinder scared. Then we 
drove the minister up to Zebedee V.’s 
house, and we all four went inside. The 
children see us cornin’, and Mis’ Slocum 
and Zora; it was quite a gatherin’. 

“ Then Z. V., he stood up again with 
his arms folded on his chest, and he says, 
“ ‘ Doctor Pierson, I understand you ’re 
wantin’ to marry my daughter ? ’ 

272 


ZEBEDEE V 

“ Doc, he says, ‘ I most certainly do, 
sir/ 

“ Mis' Slocum, she started to say some- 
thing, but Z. V. jest waved at her, and 
she look like she ’s too surprised to speak. 
Then he says, ‘ Zebedora, my daughter, 
I understand you 're wantin’ to marry this 
doctor? ’ And Zora, she jest gives a little 
sob like, and says, 'Oh, Pal’ The doc- 
tor, he holds out his arm to her, and Zora 
kinder slips into it and hides her face 
against him. 

“ Then Zebedee V. jest puffed out his 
chest real grand, and says to the minister, 
he says, ‘ Sir, proceed ! ’ And the minister 
up and married Zora and the doctor right 
then and there.” 

Mr. Willy paused, and Mrs. Aaron, who 
had two little red spots in her cheeks and 
whose eyes were unusually dim, asked: 

“ What did Flora do, Cousin Willy? ” 
273 


ZEBEDEE V 


Mr. Willy smiled, and began to rock. 
“ Well ’m,” he said, “ When I come away 
the weddin’ party had drove off, and the 
children was eatin’ Mis’ Slocum’s best 
fruit cake in the parlor, and Flora was 
a-cryin’ with her head on Zebedee V.’s 
shoulder. Z. V., he was smokin’ one of 
the doctor’s seegars, and pattin’ Flora on 
the head. And he certainly did look real 
pleased like. Yes ’m.” 

“Well,” said Mrs. Aaron, reluctantly, 
after a pause, “ well, I reckon they ’s some 
good in everybody.” 


274 





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